As quoted by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. First printed in Rome by Francisco Cavallo in 1649, before being translated into English and published in London in 1703. Fr. Alonso de Ovalle (1603-1651) was a Chilean Jesuit priest. Born in Santiago in 1603, he chronicled the history of his country, before dying in 1651. His history was even referred to by Oscar Wilde when describing how the central character in The Picture of Dorian Gray fills the long and empty years of his life: 'He collected together from all parts of the world the strangest instruments that could be found... and flutes of human bones such as Alfonso de Ovalle heard in Chile'.

First English edition; small folio (302 x 198mm); start chart showing the Southern Cross to p42; modern contemporary-style panelled calf, new endpapers; some light browning to prelims and very occasionally to margins thereafter. [iv], 154pp.