|
 The Dance Around the Golden Calf
1493
Hartman Schedel, 1493. Excellent. A few spots of light
toning, as visible (exaggerated) in image. 10.5 x 9 on full sheet 16 x 11.
German edition.
[sold]
Fine woodblock
illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle.
The following is from
the New International Version of the Old Testament
When the people saw
that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered
around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for
this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has
happened to him." Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that
your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to
me." So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of
a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O
Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an
altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a
festival to the LORD." So the next day the people rose early and
sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward
they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. Then the
LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out
of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away
from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the
shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have
said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'
|
|
 Schedel
World Map, 1493
a fine, unrestored example
Hartmann Schedel, 1493 :
[Untitled World Map]. Woodcut. Nuremberg, 1493 (First ssue).
$22,000.
A fine example of this famous map of the world essentially as known to
Columbus, and dating from the year news of his discovery reached Europe.
This map is almost invariably found heavily restored at the center, which
was sewn through in binding rather than being bound with a guard. Such
examples are generally "perfect" in appearance because of the modern
restoration used to replace missing surface and reinstate missing image.
The present example, in contrast, is exceptionally fine at the center,
with no damage but the holes of the stitching itself, and unrestored, not
washed or otherwise processed.
The figured border of strange people illustrate the people reported by the
great ancient historian Pliny, and popularized in medieval times by
Solinus, whose fantastic imagination and disregard for accuracy earned him
the nick-name "Pliny's ape." The three men Biblically responsible for
seeding post-flood humanity, Ham, Shem, and Japhet, flank and support the
map, presenting to the viewer the world which they begot.
Schedel's map formed part of the monumental Liber Cronicarum (Nuremburg
Chronicle), "one of the most extraordinary works ever produced" (-Brown).
Among the workers involved in the project was the young Albrecht Durer. |
|
 Rare
Incunable Holy Land
1496
[woodcut view of the destruction of Jerusalem]
Augsburg, Johann Schonsperger, 1496
4 x 7.5 inches on text sheet 8 x 11. Margin
trimmed on right, else an excellent example.
$850.
Very rare fifteenth century view of Jerusalem,
from a pirated miniature copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Laor
(1127) describes this German issue as the first, with a Latin edition
following in 1497. It depists the destruction of Jerusalem, with Solomon's
Temple ablaze. |
|
 First
Appearance of the name America in an Atlas,
1522
Orbis Typvs Vniversalis Ivxta Hydrographorvm Traditionem Exactissime
Depicta 1522 L.F.
Laurent Fries, 1522 (1525 or
35).
Repair to lower center (invisible), else fine. 12.5 x
18.5 inches, without upper title.
$6500.
This is the first widely disseminated use of the term
America. Laurent Fries was a physician and an astrologer in addition to a
geographer. His earliest conspicuous nook in cartographic history came in
1520, when he cut the woodblock for the rare world map of Apianus that
appeared in the Solinus of the same year. That 1520 work, profoundly
important for its use of Vespuccis name on the New World, led to the
present work, executed two years later: this is the first map in an atlas,
or in an edition of Ptolemy, to use the term America to denote the New
World. It was influential in the dissemination of the term, and that term
used as its vehicle the geographies of Waldseemuller's 1513 work. In this
respect the course of events proved quite ironic, as America was first
coined by Waldseemuller himself in 1507, but the great cosmographer had
since renounced its validity, and did not use it on an intermediate work,
his 1516 Carta Marina.
Shirley comments that in spite of [its] imperfections Fries' map is much
sought after as it somehow reflects the ambiguities of his age. A
framework of medieval thinking is having to be re-cast in order to accept
the as yet unrealised extent of the newly conquered lands. For decorative
value, if not for accuracy, the map has considerable attractions... It
is one of the earliest world maps that collectors can still obtain through
map sellers, albeit at an increasingly high price.
|
|
First Issue
(1528) of the
First Separate Maps
of North and South America
[untitled woodcut map of North America.]
[untitled woodcut map of South America.]
Benedetto Bordone, Venice, 1528.
3.5 x 6 inches each, on full uncut text sheet
the pair : $8500.
A fine example of a matched set of the maps of North and South America
from the Libro di Benedetto Bordone,
known in its subsequent editions as the Isolario.
The Isolario, or book of islands, was one type of navigational aid
commonly used by pilots sailing Mediterranean waters. The Isolario
contained descriptions and maps of the sea's islands. In was in 1485 that
the first printed Isolario appeared; that work, by Bartolomeo dalli
Sonetti, was limited to the Aegean islands. The second printed Isolario
was Bordone's work of 1528, which attempted to chart the islands of the
entire world. North America, vastly undersized and severed from South
America by a strait, figured logically into Bordone's compilation of the
world's islands. This is the first printed map specifically of North
America. Bordone's island of North America bears the single label of Terra de
lavoratore (i.e., Labrador). The term comes from el lavrador (the
farmer), nickname for a Portuguese-Azorean adventurer by the name of Joao
Fernandes (Such a nick-name did not necessarily imply ordinary
social-standing or poor background). Fernandes may have tried his luck at
western voyages under the Portuguese flag as early as Columbus had under
the Spanish flag. Records in Lisbon and the Azores show that he sailed in
voyages of discovery under license from King John in 1492-95. Some
authorities (e.g., Samuel Morison) do not believe this, and in any case no
discoveries are recorded as having been made. In 1499 he received license
from Manuel I for further (?) exploration, although as he transfered to
England shortly afterwards that license appears to have never been used.
At the turn of the century, however, Fernandes emigrated to England and
quickly secured letters patent from Henry VII for the discovery and
possession of new lands. Two theories might explain his sudden change of
allegiance: in Portugal he may have been out-ranked by the more lavish
Corte-Real brothers in securing rights to any lands discovered, or rather
Fernandes might simply have been enticed by a better offer from Bristol
merchants. Gaspar Corte-Real had received a license for the discovery of
new lands from Manuel I in 1500, which may have conflicted with any
similar request by Fernandes (see page 56). In Bristol, Fernandes joined a
group of merchants which had links with the Azores; this group included
two fellow Azorians.
Sailing in 1501 under his new privilege from Henry VII, he is thought to
have discovered Labrador, with use of his nickname to denote the region
dating as early as 1502 (it is found on the Cantino portolan chart of
the world made for the Duke of Ferrara in 1502). His true landfall has
long been disputed, however. Some historians argue that he reached
Greenland rather than any part of America, and this contributed to the
mis-identification of the present Bordone map as other than North America;
e.g., Bagrow (History of Cartography, p. 64) refers to this work as a map
of Greenland. A cavalier attitude on the part of some early mapmakers has only
compounded the issue, as Labrador is sometimes found as a wedge-shaped
trace of land above America, later being assimilated into the American
continent itself. Bordone's map offers nothing to the unresolved issue of
what shores Fernandes reached.
That Bordone's little map of Terra de lavoratore is the North American
continent, not self-evident from its geography, is demonstrated by two
points. The simpler is by its context in Bordone's world map in the same
isolario. Perhaps even more convincing is the term stretto pte del mondo
novo found at the southern extreme of our Terra de lavoratore, the new
world with which it shares the strait clearly referring, at this time,
only to South America (and as South America is in fact designated on
Bordone's world map). However, although the landmass is functioning as an
autonomous North America, its geography is rooted in a primitive depiction
showing North America as eastern shores of an elongated eastern Asian
coast. Bordone has taken such an earlier map, extracted its Amerasian
section, and added an arbitrary western coastline to complete it. The two
Rosselli world maps of circa 1508 are likely candidates. Geographically,
they both show an ancestral connection to Bordones, and in fact Bordone
copied the projection of Rossellis oval map for his world map. And
Rosselli, like Bordone, designated all of the North American discoveries
after Joao Fernandes. (There are two Rosselli world maps from circa 1508,
one on an oval (which projection Bordone copied for his world map) and a
sea chart, both untitled. The sea chart clearly records Tyerra de
labrdor, and the oval map in all probability shares the same place-name,
but it is essentially illegible.)
Little, if any, true North American geography has been incorporated into
Bordones originally Asian landscape. The map is, for example, void of any trace of the Florida (or pseudo-Florida) peninsula already
found on other printed maps for two decades. In any case, the narrow
section of North America above the Stretto pte del modo novo corresponds
roughly to southern North America (lying at 35o north latitude), and the
stretto itself is approximately in the region of Mexico where Cortes and
Garay had hoped to find one, and indeed where some earlier maps timidly
alluded to one. The lower border of the map is drawn along the Tropic of
Cancer. In the Atlantic, Bordone has abandoned scale to allow him to include
Fernandes native Azores, and the fabulous island of Brasil from old Irish
legend. The other island shown by Bordone, Asmaide, has not left such a
rich history as Brasil Island, but it is also found near Brasil on other
maps, such as the 1513 Terre Nove of Waldseemuller.
Bordone's primitive representation of South America depicts a narrow,
mountainous South America oriented N.W.-S.E. It bears the place-names of
chancite, cuztana, maziatambal, and paria. By correlation to his
world map, the southern limit of the map is the Tropic of Capricorn. The
islands of Jamaica, Hispaniola, and the unnamed Antilles are shown in the
Caribbean. |
|
 Oronce
Fine,
1542
Full-page Cosmological
illustration
11 x 6.5 inches (image) on full
untrimmed sheet 13.5 x 8.5 inches. Excellent.
$1200.
Artful cosmographic representation, showing Fine
himself, with the muse Urania, and the earth surrounded by an elaborate
armillary sphere.
From the rare De Mundi Spaere of the
important cosmographer, Oronce Fine.
See :
Dibner Library
Adler Planetarium
|
Cordiform
world map
from
Apianus' Cosmography
Mappa mundi oft generale Carte der
Werelt...
Gemma Frisius, 1544 (state 2, 1553 or
1561 or 1564)
Excellent. Very light in toning in
two spots, as visible in image. 7.5 x 11 (map proper); 9 x 12 (full
sheet).
$5500.
Gemma added this map to Apianus Cosmographia, a
text of great importance first published in 1524. Nordenskiold (Facsimile
Atlas, p 102) refers to Gesner in speculating that the map originally
appeared in 1540 (apparently as a separate issue) independent of the
Apianus text, though it is commonly known as part of Gemma's overhaul of
the book in 1544 or 1545.
This is the first printed map correctly
delineating the Yucatan as a penisula of the central American isthmus,
rather than as an island. North America is poorly formed and is labeled
Baccalaerum, a name it acquired because of the codfish Europeans found so
plentiful off its coast.
In the north, the clear and enticing
depiction of a passage above North America reflects many theoreticians
and buinessmens aspirations of finding a Northeast or Northwest passage.
In doing so, the Gemma map keeps alive the view encouraging the
exploration of a northern route to the Moluccas proposed in a letter
written to Henry VIII in 1527 by Robert Thorne. The idea of a northern
route began with the discovery of America. In 1496 John Cabot, a native of
Genoa but of Venetian citizenship, was granted permission by Henry VII of
England for a northern voyage to Cathay. Sailing west the following
year, he reached northeast Canada, but like his countryman Columbus,
supposedly believed he had reached Asia. He made a second attempt, now
hoping to reach Zipangri; had the scheme worked, later voyages would
surely have penetrated further and futher south after the ocean crossing
to eventually make contact with the Spiceries. The idea of a northern
route then adapted to the reality that a major landmass lay between Europe
and Asia. In 1524 Englands rival across the Channel, France, sent the
Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazanoto penetrate [the New World] to
those blessed shores of Cathay. |
|
 Gastaldi,
1548
Oval Map of the World
Universale Novo.
Pair of wormholes below
map near centerfold, else excellent.
5.5 x 7 inches.
$3000.
The Earliest obtainable version of Gastaldis Landmark 1546 World Map.
An excellent example of this map of the world from the edition of
Ptolemys Geographia published by Giacomo Gastaldi. Condition is
excellent; the impression is quite strong, save for a small area in the
south Atlantic, where it is weaker. Such variations and inconsistencies in
impression are common with the maps from the Gastaldi Ptolemy.
There were two world maps in this atlas, being the present map, and a
mariners chart of the world. There was no Ptolemaic world map in the
atlas. There is only one edition and one state of this map.
Geographically the map is a reduction of the landmark world map of 1546.
Like many of his contemporaries, Gastaldi was obsessed with the question
of the continuity of the earths northern landmasses, and his theories in
this regard were of enormous influence. In this earlier period of his
life, Gastaldi was convinced that all the northern continents were
connected, though unsure of whether the land formed an unbroked ring or
was interrupted between America and Europe (or Greenland/Europe). This map
exemplifies the concept of Asia and America forming a single landmass,
with Japan looming in the resulting gulf, while America and Europe are
separated by a strait. But later, in 1562, Gastaldi issued a small book in
which he rescinded his earlier belief that no strait existed between Asia
and America. He now proposed that very strait with assured conviction,
naming it Streto di Anian. Marco Polo, in his Travels, clearly suggests
that ocean separates China from lands to the east. Gastaldi was of course
familliar with Polos writing and named the strait after an Asian kingdom
it describes.
Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565) was the most respected cosmographer of
his day, rivaled only by the younger Gerhard Mercator. As cosmographer to
the Republic of Venice his work was extremely influencial, being copied by
by numerous other makers. His edition of Ptolemy (from which the present
work comes) was one of the most important. With it the art of the
copperplate engraving of maps was resurrected in Italy. The maps were
handsomely engraved on copper by the famous cosmographer Gastaldi and a
whole series of plates of the New World is here met with, for the first
time, and some of them are of no slight interest to the history of
cartography. His Ptolemy was issued in only one edition and hence is
rare. Gastaldi's theories were of enormous influence, particularly as
regards the connection of the Northwest Coast to Asia. |
|
 1548
Sicily, in rare original color
Stumpf, 1548: [untitled map of Sicily]. 5
x 3 inches on half-sheet of text. Excellent. Original color.
$200.
Using the same woodblock
as from the little geography of Honter (1546).
The following from
Karrow, Mapmakers of the Sixteenth Century
This book was extraordinary in every way. Although necessarily a work of
collaboration and synthesis, Stumpfs chronicle stands out as unusually
well-balanced, well-edited, and sell-organized. He cut, expanded, and
molded his own and otherstexts to fit his master plan, earning high
praise even from the other contributors. The great humanist Joachim
Vadianus, who contributed long manuscripts that Stumpf vigorously pruned,
remarked that he is truly an untiring compiler and has a talent for clear
nad plain statement. He Seems to me to be forn for his work (Strauss
1958, 112). So completely did the Stumpf Chronicle come to dominate Swiss
historiography that its author earned the sobriquet the Swill Livy.
Beyond its textual merits, the Chronicle was a superb example of
bookmaking and has been called the highest achievement in the art of
printing in sixteenth-century Switzerland (Leemann-van Elck 1940, 114-15).
Froschauer spared no paings to make the book as clear and attractive as
possible, and the great contrast with the rather mandane first edition of
Munsters cosmographia (1544; 58/S above) is said to have spurred Munster
to make great improvements in the second edition. Stumpfs two massive
folio volumes included some 2,400 woodcuts: portraits, coins, views of
military and historical events, roman inscriptions drawings of natural
history arms, fifty-six city views, and twenty-three maps (Neujahrsblatt
[1881, 24-50] lists the subjects of many of these cuts). Froschauer
insisted that his illustrators read the appropriate sections of the text
before making their drawings so that the illustrations might be as
accurate as possible. |
|
Jerusalem
Sebastian Munster, ca. 1550-60 :
Double-page view of Jerusalem. 6 x 15 inches on full double-page. Minor
soiling is exaggerated in the image. Excellent.
[sold]
Sebastian Munster was raised as a Franciscan monk, converted to
Lutheranism, taught Hebrew at Heidelberg and Basle, and was proficient in
Greek and some Asian tongues. He died of the plague in 1552. His
Cosmographia was the most popular cosmological/geographical work of the
mid-sixteenth century.
Laor 1087. |
|
1552
Cosmography of Sebastian
Munster a spectacular example
in a fine contemporary binding
Cosmographiae universalis Lib. VI in quibis, iuxta
certioris fidei scriptorum...
Sebastian Munster
Basle: Petri, 1552 Woodcut
title, portrait, 14 double-page maps, including two world maps and one map
of America, 37 town views, 3 folding panormas, and 3 other double-page
woodcuts. Plethora of woodcut illustrations throughout text. Contemporary
tooled pigskin over over wooden boards, with clasps.
An outstanding example example of a work notorious for
poor paper quality and condition flaws. Some repair to tears in the
fold-out views, the only noteworthy instance being that of Florence (see
image herewith). paper size small on this fold-out view, though it does
not appear to be inserted from another example.
$45,000.
A stunning, complete example of what was undoubtedly
the single most widely distributed cosmographical text of the mid
sixteenth century.
The famous map of America (Burden 12) is
here in state 5, and the modern world map in its second block, that of
David Kendall, 1550.
Sebastian Munster was raised as a
Franciscan monk, converted to Lutheranism, taught Hebrew at Heidelberg and
Basle, and was proficient in Greek and some Asian tongues. He died of the
plague in 1552.
This work was an outgrowth of Munster
edition of Ptolemy's Geography, whose Latin translation was based on that
by Willibald Pirkheimer, though in a prelude to the present work's
originality, he did not merely copy that rendering. He carefully collated
it with previous editions, added numerous notes of his own, and produced
new maps to supplement the Ptolemaic maps (Karrow).
Nordenskiold comments
that the Geographia (whose same blocks were used for the continents maps
in the present work) is the first to give general maps of the four parts
of the earth then known . . . to Mnster the merit is also due of
having... given references to the sources used by him.
Adams M1909
Sabin 51380
320 x 210 mm
Petri 1552 |
|
Most
Advanced Published Map of America of its time (1554)
Very
rare first state, with "Peru" horizontal
Juan Bellero, Antwerp, 1554:
Brevis Exactaq Totius Novi Orbis Eivsq Insularum Descriptio Recens a
Joan Bellero Edita. State 1, with the word Peru vertical. 5 x 7
inches. Close margins as usual. Excellent condition and impression.
$15,500.
When in 1519 Magellan set sail on his quest for a
passage around America, the Portuguese pilot Estavao
Gomes, a bitter rival of Magellan, was the sailing-master of one of the
fleets ships. While the fleet was diffused exploring their new-found
strait (1520), Gomes instigated a near-mutiny, abandoned the expedition,
and eventually returned to Spain. The Crown, which had hoped a route would
be found into the South Sea at about the latitude of the Rio de la Plata,
learned from him that the expedition had already ventured in excess of
fifteen hundred kilometers further south. This was far too steep a
latitude to invite routine access to the Orient even if the strait yielded
the anticipated passage. As a result, a better solution was sought even
before the return of Magellans survivors in 1522. In 1524 Gomes attended
a congress of both Spanish and Portuguese navigators held in Badajoz to
discuss the likelihood of a passage to the Moluccas existing north of
Florida, and the following year he sailed from the northwestern port of La
Coruna with instructions from Charles V to search for such a route along
the coast of Bacallaos. He thus became the first Spanish explorer in New
England. The surviving evidence of his voyage shows that he recorded the
Maine and Massachusetts coasts including Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod,
filling the gap between the data of Verrazano and Cartier used by Gastaldi
on his maps of 1548 and 1556.
On Belleros map it is possible speculatively to identify Gomes
nomenclature. The B. d. S. Christoval at the pronounced indentation in the
Atlantic coast is probably Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bay, named by Gomes
for Saint Christopher because he reached it on that saints feast day,
July 25. Continuing east, the Merrimac River is R. d. buena madre (River
of the the Good Mother), named for Saint Anne, as Gomes reached there on
her saints day, July 26. Rio seco (Dry River) is the Saco River,
Arcipielago (i.e., Archipelago) is Casco Bay, and C. de S. maria is
probably Cape Small. R. de las gamas (River of the Deer) would be
Penobscot Bay and River. Just east of it is Costa de medanos (Coast of
Sand Dunes), possibly a reference to the sand-like appearance of the
mountaintops of Mount Desert Island. R. de montanas (River of Mountains)
is Frenchmans Bay or Pleasant River, and Castenal (Chestnut Grove) may
be Machias Bay. Continuing northeast after a small void area is B. de la
ensenado (Bay of the Rounded Gulf?), which may correspond to
Passamaquoddy Bay. R. de la buella (i.e., vuelta, or River of the
Return) is probably the River St. John, from where Gomes began the voyage
back to La Coruna. This is as analyzed by W. F. Ganong in Crucial Maps in
the Early Cartography and Place-Nomenclature of the Atlantic Coast of
Canada (1964), p. 174-189. Belleros map falls into Ganongs Chaves-Santa
Cruz archtype. According to another view of the nomenclature, B. d. S.
Christoval is lower New York Bay, R. d. buena madre is perhaps the
Connecticut or Thames River, and R. de las gamas is the Hudson River,
though misplaced (see Sauer, Sixteenth Century North America, p. 67-68).
Another man whose labors provided some of Belleros
information, and whose ambitions at least partly targeted the finding of a
passage through North America, was Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, an auditor of
St. Domingo. In 1520, while Gomes was making his way back to Spain after
abandoning Magellans fleet, Ayllon obtained a license to explore the
coast of North America. He charged Francisco Gordillo to undertake the
expedition in his name. While en route through the Bahamas, the caravel
encountered and joined forces with another Spanish fleet, that of Pedro de
Quexos. Reaching Florida, seventy natives were taken and enslaved. As
Ayllon had specifically instructed Gordillo to seek friendly relations
with the Indians, the act was condemned upon the caravels return and
Ayllon arranged for the Indians safe return to their homeland. Ayllon,
determined to explore and settle, persevered through both political and
practical problems that arose. In 1526 he set sail from Puerto Rico with
three vessels bearing the seeds of a colony : fully six hundred men and
women, including clergymen and doctors, African slaves (here first
introduced to North America), and one hundred horses. While sailing along
the North American coast, the fleet lost its brigantine, quickly replacing
it with a small boat, a gavarra. This was the first European-style vessel
built in what is now the United States. They eventually settled at
Gualdape (in present-day South Carolina), founding a colony they called
San Miguel (according to Winsor, however, the Gualdape colony of San
Miguel was the same site as Jamestown, Virginia. See Narrative and
Critical History of America, vol. III, p. 241). Bellero places
nomenclature from Ayllons excursions directly below that of Gomes.
Beginning below Gomes B. d. S. Christoval is Ayllons C. d. Trafalgar, B.
del principe, and C. d S. Roman (below a river of canoes). The remaining
place-names in the Southeast on Belleros map correspond to those on the
Spanish padron general; see e.g. Harrissee, The Discovery of North
America, p. 635 Neither Bellero nor any other contemporary mapmaker,
however, records the colony of San Miguel, probably because it had quickly
failed. Ayllon himself perished there from sickness.
The final major source of Belleros East Coast
cartography is Portuguese. By letters patent dated March 13 of 1521,
Portugals King Manoel acknowledged the discovery by one Joao Alvarez
Fagundes of a mainland and islands on the northeast coast of the New
World. The discovery, made no later than 1520, was believed to lie south
of the Corte-Real landfalls and north of Spanish claims. Surviving
evidence is scant and inconclusive, but Fagundes may have scouted
Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence Gulf, and that is the way it figured in
Belleros map. If so, Santolino would be the St. Lawrence more than a
decade before Cartier. Nearby, C. Rasso is Cape Race, and Fagundes islas
de las virginas is named for the story of St. Ursula.
The location of the Fagundes colony is uncertain. Sauer
(who believes that the original Fagundes voyage explored the coast of
Maine through Sable Island) makes a strong case for the Annapolis lowland
on the Bay of Fundy as the site of the colony. Basque sailors trading with
the Azores later reported the colony to be faring well and to have
established friendly relations with the Indians. What ultimately became of
it is unknown. See Sauer, Sixteenth Century North America, p. 47-51.
Following Fagundes initial exploratory voyage (which he himself may or
may not have accompanied), he is believed to have founded a settlement,
the first post-Columbian European colony on the North American continent,
planned after the fashion of the Azores. According to proposals it was to
be a peaceful settlement and engage in the production of soap.
Belleros depiction of South America resembles that
found in the 1546 world map of Gastaldi, both in its accuracy and in the
peculiar orientation given the Amazon River, originating in mountains far
to the south and flowing north. A south-to-north orientation of the Amazon
was shown earlier, e.g., Monachus (circa 1527) and Vopell (1536), but
Belleros is most similar to that of Gastaldi.
The present example is the rare first state, with the word "Peru"
vertical.
REF :
Adams A 1318
Alden 567.3
Burden 20
Cumming, etc., Discovery of North America, fig 80.
Nordenskiold, Periplus, 161.
Palau 13928
Sabin 1761n.
Stokes, Iconography..., vol. II p 28. |
|
 Switzerland,
Germany, etc.,
from Munster
Schwaben und
Baierland...
from Munster's Cosmography, ca. 1550-1560
Six small wormholes, else fine. Usual soft paper typical of the
Cosmography. 10.5 x 13.5 inches.
$125.
Double-page woodcut
map of the area of Switzerland and Bavaria. |
|
 Armillary
Sphere
Girlami Ruscelli, 1561. 8 x 6.5
inches (full sheet). Excellent.
$150.
Full-page
illustration of an armillary sphere from the Ruscelli's rendering of
Ptolemy' Geography. |
|
 'Modern'
England & Ireland, 1561
Anglia et Hibernia
Nova
Girlami Ruscelli, 1561. 7.25 x 10 inches (inc title). Three small holes at
centerfold, apparently from binding stitching. Excellent.
$400.
First edition of
Ruscelli's re-engraving of the smaller map by Gastaldi. |
|
 Amsterdam,
before its
preeminence as a map-publishing center
Amstelredamum... Braun & Hogenberg,1572. Excellent, full
original color. Added margin left and right.13.5 x 19 inches.
$1800.
From the first volume
of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. As described by John Goss (City
Maps of Europe), this is "after the woodcut plan of Cornelis Antoniszoon,
1544. The plan shows Amsterdam as it existed in the middle years of the
seventeenth century... shows an Amsterdam still largely surrounded by the
medeival town walls established and extended since the original damming in
1240 which created the Damrak and the Rokin as the original harbours.
Thirteenth-century Amsterdam was merely a small fishing port, well behind
such towns as Delft, Leiden or Haarlem in rank and importance." |
|
Thevet,
1575
Four
Continents.
Matched set, state 1. Each 14 x 18
inches. Light toning in margins. Excellent.
The set : $21,000.
Unusual deviations from Mercator/Ortelius model,
a matched set of all four continents in the first state.
Andr Thevet was a Franciscan monk and the royal cosmographer to Henry
III. He travelled to Brazil both with Guillaume le Testu in 1551 and with
Nicolas de Villegagnon in 1555, on the latter expedition settling at
Guanabara, present-day Rio de Janeiro.
Thevet claims to have based his map of America on his first-hand
observations; it is in any event one of the scarce
handful of maps whose author had in fact visited America, and it
contains considerable information not found on other maps of the period.
The region in Brazil where France dabbled in trade and prostelytizing is
appropriately called France Antartique, as dubbed by Villegagnon, who
considered himself to be King of America. Here Thevet, long anticipating
most mapmakers, introduces the name r Janairo. Directly inland, Thevet's
missionary role in the New World is reflected in his knowledge of various
Indian peoples. Most prominent is Toupinambaux, the Tupinamba Indians
known to us mainly through the adventures of the German adventurer Hans
Staden, whom they had held captive shortly before Thevet's second trip.
Thevet and Staden appear to have witnessed similar rituals in Tupinamba
life; e.g., both offer a similar description of a Tupinamba burial (unless
the apparent corroboration is an illusion resulting from plagerism on the
part of Thevet).
The map's peculiar depiction of southwest South America is unique, and
forms an interesting bridge between maps showing a bulge in that region
and subsequent maps which corrected it. The bulge in South America had
been popularized by Mercator in 1569, and Ortelius in 1570.
Along the Eastern Seaboard of North America, which he skirted before
crossing the Atlantic on his return to France in 1556, Thevet adds some
nomenclature to his basic Ortelius prototype. A Sandy Cape (C. Sande) is
probably the Cabo de Arenas of Gomes, here appearing as the southern tip
of Nova Scotia (Cape Sable) but positioned precisely on the latitude of
Cape Cod (to which feature Cabo de Arenas is in fact sometimes applied)
because of the erroneous lateral orientation of the coast. In the waters
off eastern Canada, Thevet revives Thule, Ptolemy's Shetland Islands,
already forgotten by many mapmakers. His use of extraordinary nomenclature
and occasionally odd geography persists throughout the rest of the map, in
regions to which he had never been and therefore based on sources other
than his own experience. In the Northwest Coast, for example, he
introduces the rare (and unlikely) French variant of Montagnes negres
(Black Mountains) for the Sierra Nevada, negre probably being a
corruption of neve (snow). In the Pacific Ocean Cimpegu, the Japan of
Marco Polo, denotes a small island off the west coast of New Guinea.
Thevet flippantly depicts Terra Australis thriving with sub-tropical life
in a biosphere which continues unchanged through New Guinea, and leaves
the question of New Guinea's relationship to Terra Australis open, using
his address to the reader to cover the strategic area and avoid the issue.
The quality of Thevets woodblock is extremely sophisticated, reflecting
the peculiarly French finesse for fine woodcuts. At a time when the
copperplate had already become the preferred medium, this works detail
and refinement is vastly superior to the woodblock maps still being
produced in Germany, Switzerland, and to an extent even in Italy. Thevet
was a strong proponent of the theory that the indigenous people of America
were the descendants of the lost tribe of Israel; his enthusiasm for the
idea was instrumental in propelling it into the next century. The subtitle
of his map of America, the fourth part of the world, is a carry-over
from Waldseemller and his 1507 treatise about Vespucci.
The following commentary on the map is from Gloria Gilda Deak's Picturing
America:
[...Thevet has here made an attempt to identify the many settlements
in the two continents and to give the names of numerous mountains and
rivers. Topographically, the map is richly engraved.
Within the cartouche addressed to the `amiable reader', Thevet, a learned
Franciscan monk, genially presents his map as the most accurate thus far
of the New World and promotes the book in which it appears by affirming
that he has tried to please the reader with ample descriptions of the many
topographical features. He calls particular attention to his exacting
marking of the degrees of longitude and latitude.
Friar Thevet was among the few cosmographers of the sixteenth century who
travelled to the New World, and he made many claims to firsthand
information. He states that on his return from visiting Brazil in 1555,
his ship coasted much of the eastern seaboard of North America; but
scholars, inclined to doubt some of Thevet's claims, see the value of his
map in the compilations rather than in fresh geographic facts or
projections.
|
|
 Heinrich
Bnting, 1581
The Earth
as a Clover-Leaf
Woodcut. 10 x 14 inches. Excellent.
$8500.
A beautiful example, with a sharp impression and full
margins, of Bntings famous depiction of the world in the form of a
clover-leaf (the unevenness in the image is only the
digital image, not the map).
The map is the most sought-after part of Bntings
Itinerarivm Sacrae Scriptvrae, a rare study of travel literature
pertaining to the Bible. Buenting, a professor in Hanover, tried to
reconcile the established geographical knowledge of his time with the
reports of many of the significant travellers to the Middle East.
The clover was the symbol Bntings native Hanover, and he has transformed
it into a map of thw world with Jerusalem at its center, a vestige from
the days when the earth was thought to be flat, with the Holy Land its
pivot. Very lightly toned overall, in excellent condition, with fine
margins.
It is interesting to note that the increased demand for books in the late
sixteenth and early seventeenth century created such a shortage of paper
that the quality of paper was severely compromised to meet the demand. As
a result, Bntings work is notorius for the poor quality of paper used. |
|
 Sumatra,
Singapore, Southern Malaya
Petri, 1588, Sumatra ein grosse Insel... Excellent. 12 x 14.25 inches + title.
$650.
An interesting early map to show Singapore prominently, this map was added
to the Munster Cosmographia when it was revamped after 1578, well after
Munster's death.
The image of the elephant actually originates with Munster's earlier map
of Ceylon. Because of confusion over the intent of Ptolemy's term
"Taprobana," Sumatra is here presented as Taprobana and the elephant
carried over with it. |
|
 Noah's
Ark
[untitled]. From Part I of Theodore
de Bry's Grandes Voyages, 1591. Right margin ratty but engraving itself is
unscathed. 6 x 8 inches on full untrimmed text sheet.
[sold]
Elegantly engraved
depiction of pairs of beasts marching from Noah's Ark after the Deluge.
|
|
 Le Moyne Titlepage
First Edition
Jacques Le Moyne / Theodore de Bry, 1591
Brevis Narratio Eorum Quae in Florida Americae Provincia... M.D.XCI
Slight crumpling of paper in lower left, just entering engraved
surface. Tear in lower margin, not entering engraved surface. Excellent
overall. 12.5 x 8.5 inches.
$350.
Fine engraved 1591
titlepage to the first Latin edition of Le Moyne's account of the French
adventures Florida under Rene de Laudonniere in the 1560s. |
|
 Unusual
Crude Woodcut Map of America
Giuseppe Rosaccio, 1595 or subsequent :
[untitled map of America]. 5 x 7 inches. Excellent.
$850.
An interesting example of how map evolution was never a steadily "forward"
affair, this rough little map may to be a reissue of an earlier map, but
in fact was created for the Teatro del Cielo of 1595. The geography is
primitively copied from the Ortelius map of 1570, though with differences
beyond the crudeness.
As noted by Burden (entry 89), Quivera is shown twice, the Sierra Nevada
is marked, and a city is placed at the head of the Gulf of California. |
|
 Linschoten's
depiction of people of China, 1596
Habitus e China regno pretiose elegantie et rerum omnium affluentissimum.
Excellent. 10 x 12.5 inches.
[sold]
Double-page engraving of people of China, from the important work
Itinerario of Linschoten.
Jan Huygen van
Linschoten was born about the year 1563 in Haarlem. His name means `John,
son of Hugh', with `Linschoten' being the patronymic of the town of that
name in the province of Utrecht, where his family's roots apparently lie.
Linschoten's adventures at sea probably owe their origins to the
imperialistic ambitions of Spain. Although in 1572, when Linschoten was
nine years old, the Spanish were overpowered and expelled from Holland,
they returned the following year with greater forces and once again
subdued Haarlem. The Linschoten family moved to the seaport of Enkhuizen,
where Spanish control was weaker. Here he was exposed to seafaring.
Despite the hostilities between Holland and Spain, the two countries
maintained commercial relationships, which neither could afford to
jeopardize. As a result, when Linschoten was sixteen, he travelled to
Spain, ultimately to Seville, which of course was a major nerve-center in
the current explorations overseas.
Linschoten arrived back in Holland in 1592 after travels which included
five years in Goa. His volume Itinerario, from which this work comes, is
among our most important sources for knowledge of contemporary voyages.
Linschoten helped pioneer the cause of Dutch pre-eminence in trade with
the Orient, and his efforts in this regard contributed greatly to the
establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602.
|
|
 Benzoni
/de Bry,
1596
America
America sive Novus Orbis Respectu
Europaeoum Inferior Globi Terrestris Pars. 1596
A few patched tears in upper and
lower margins, without loss. Narrow, but adequate margins. Excellent
impression. 13 x 16 inches.
[sold]
Beautifully engraved map of America, based on
Linschoten's Portuguese models and flanked by four explorers, from the
Major Voyages of de Bry.
Burden (91) notes that this map
"incorporates accurately for the first time the White-Le Moyne cartography
upon a map of America, Virginia being placed more correctly further
south." |
|
 The
Lodewyckszoon Map of Southeast Asia
Theodore de Bry, 1598-9 :
[Southern Malaya, Singapore, Sumatra, Java, and southern Borneo.] A superb
example.
[sold]
Cornelis de Houtman made
the first Dutch voyage to Southeast Asia in 1595-97. Though the financial
returns of the voyage were meager, de Houtman nonetheless established
trade with the great pepper port of Banten, near which the Dutch colony of
Batavia would soon be founded.
This first Dutch voyage
to the Indies reached home in August of 1597. News of it was related in
several works, the first being an anonymous account published by Barent
Langenes before the year was out. Most important, however, was the
Historie van Indien, published by Cornelis Claesz in April of 1598.
Essentially the log of one of the expeditions participants, Willem
Lodewijcksz, this book was supposed to boast a new general map of southern
Malaya and the western Indonesian islands; however, in chapter 19 of the
volume, we find this note:
"Here follows the chart of Java. But there is no chart. There is the
accepted opinion that this mentioned chart was Lodewijcksz's chart. When
the merchants saw this chart, the first printed one from this area in such
detail, they have forbidden to insert this chart in the log."
The forbidden map,
however, was published later the same year as a loose-sheet. and the
Amsterdam merchants concern for keeping the chart confidential proved
futile, since before the end of the year a copy of it was published by the
German chronicler, Theodore de Bry, in Part II of the Petits Voyages.
De Brys rendering of the Lodewijcksz map is typical of his beautiful
engraving and aesthetic sense. One flaw crept into the copying process,
however: de Brys latitude markings err by one degree as compared with the
original. Lodewijcksz log records that the north coast of Bali lies at
8.5 south latitude, very close to the correct figure of 8. The Claesz
/van Doetechum original follows this meticulously, but de Brys markings
are mis-aligned, mistakenly placing the islands north coast at about 7
south latitude.
The map focuses
exclusively on southern Malaya, Sumatra, Java, southern Borneo, and the
islands east of Java through Sumbawa the limited region reconnoitered by
de Houtman. The map records unprecendented detail along western and
northern Java, and a plethora of small islands in the Sunda Strait itself
and on the Indian Ocean threshold to it. Entering the region by piercing
the waters between Sumatra and Java rather than by way of Malacca and
Singapore, the crew reported so many islands on the western side of the
Sunda Strait that they had difficulty finding the channel. Mataram, a city
in the interior of Java, is illustrated in vignette. Though the map is
conceived in the style of a mariners chart, which rarely included
interior features, Mataram was relevant to the commercial affairs of
European mariners. Most of the northern coast of the island had become
dominated by the Muslims by about 1535, the Hindus holding on only at the
eastern tip. But Muslim control over the coastal region ebbed in the
latter years of the sixteenth century as the interior Muslim states of
Mataram and Pajang became the new nerve centers of Muslim trade,
frustrating the coastal-based European attempts to control Java. For much
of the seventeenth century, Mataram, Banten, and the V.O.C. vied for
control of Java. |
|
Search
for a Northeast Passage
Barrents / Gerrit de Veer, 1601
Set of 22 plates, 1 full-page and 21
half page on full uncut text (Latin) sheet. Excellent condition, and
strong, sharp impressions throughout. (click on any of the thumbnails to
enlarge).
The 22 plates : [sold]
As Early as 1553, London's
Muscovite Trading Company attempted tp reach China by a
Northeastern route, sailing east above Europe and Asia.
Several English attempts to secure
this potentially lucrative route, but never reaching
further than to Nova Zemlya followed through about
1580.
Dutch expeditions then followed
those of the English. Willem Barents accompanied
an expedition in 1594, and again in 1595.
Th latter boasted
several ships carrying,
optimistically, trading goods for the Chinese.
Following the failure of that attempt, another
expedition followed in 1596
with Barents being one of the pilots.
After reaching Spitzbergen,
the ship was destroyed on the ice, sinking
east of Nova Zemlya. The crew survived there
through the winter and then attempted to head south in two open
boats, during which attempt Barents died.
The survivors reached
the Kola Peninsula, where they
encountered a Dutch vessel
and returned home to the Netherlands. |
|
 The
Elder Hondius Map Of America
America.
Jodocus Hondius. Amsterdam, 1606
(1628). Excellent. One subtle printer's crease near lower center. Full
fine original color.
[sold]
A particularly
beautioful example, in superb original color, of the seventeenth centurys first great atlas map of
America.
Jodocus Hondius the elder is regarded as one of the foremost cartographers
of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. His acquisition in
1604 of the copper-plates used for the Mercator atlas launched the Dutch
map trade into the new century and, in Koeman's words, `won [the Mercator
atlas] its proper fame'.
In addition to the original Mercator plates, Hondius prepared for the
atlas new plates of his own which drew on more current knowledge; his map
of the Americas is a prime example of this. Mercator's corresponding map,
prepared by his son Michael and first published in 1595, was essentially
based on the father's large world map of 1569, and as a result was a
venerable but antiquated document by its 1595 appearance; Hondius' work,
in contrast, was fresh when introduced and delineated the continent in
fine accuracy for its day. In addition, he drew on the accounts of voyages
as published by Theodore de Bry during the last decade of the sixteenth
century to provide pictorial representations of the New World. These
include depictions of Virginia and Florida from Parts I and II of de Bry's
voyages, the expeditions of John White and Jacque Le Moyne, and Part III,
the adventures of Hans Staden. Staden learned much while in the captivity
of the Tupinamba Indians of Brazil, and an illustration from the account
of his voyage appears in the lower left of Hondius' map. Relevant text
from the De Bry account follows (translation from Michael Alexander):
. . . Drinks are also made by the women. They boil mandioca, then when it
has cooled they chew the boiled roots. After all has been chewed it is put
back in the pot, mixed with water, and reheated. They pour the liquid into
special vessels which are half buried in the ground, and leave it for two
days to ferment. It is thick but pleasant flavoured. Each hut makes its
own drink and when a village desires to make merry, which generally
happens once a month, the men go first to one hut and drink there until
the drink is finished; then they go round the other huts drinking their
fill until there is nothing left. When they drink they gather round the
pots sitting, come on fire sticks, others on the ground. The women help
them to the liquor in an orderly manner. The drinkers sing and dance round
the pots and on the spot where they drink they void themselves of their
wine. The drinking lasts the whole night, with dancing between the fires
and blowing of trumpets. They make a terrible noise and they get drunk,
but they rarely quarrel. They also behave generously to each other and if
one man has more food than his neighbour he will share it with him. |
|
Fabulous early double-page
view of Macao
Theodore de Bry, 1607 :
Amacao. Excellent. 10 x 13 inches.
$3500.
One of the
most splendid engravings from the Voyages of de
Bry, this full double-page view shows the artist's conception of Macao.
Macao had quickly became a strategic stronghold for European voyages after
the Portuguese established a trading post there in 1557, and remain a
principal pivot of European voyages in the Far East and Pacific for many
years. |
|
First
world map to show
California as an island
Spieghel der Australische
Michael Colijn, 1622 11 x 7.5
(full sheet); 3.5 x 5.5 (map);7 x 4.5 (verso plate)
$7200.
NOT IN SHIRLEY.
Titlepage
from the account of the voyage of Le Maire.
This was printed the same year as the Herrera titlepage, normally cited as
the first map depicting California as an island. While the Herrera is
quite scarce, the present work is far, far greater rarity, so rare that it
was missed in the exhaustive work of Rodney Shirley.
The
map is directly related to an inset in the famous Pacific chart of Hessel
Gerritsz (manuscript) of the same year, in the Biblioteque Nationale.
In 1615, Jacob Le Maire and Captain Willem Schouten set
out to challenge the Dutch East India's monopoly. Under the auspices of a
group of merchants headed by Jacob's father Isaac, the expedition sought
to discover an alternate entrance into the Pacific, one to which the East
India Company's monopoly would be invalid. Following a theory currently
being flaunted about intellectual circles, they sailed south around the
Tierra del Fuego, dismissing the century-old assumption that it was part
of Terra Australis. Crossing the Pacific, they made numerous discoveries,
principally in the Tuamotu and Tongan groups, and along New Guinea. Upon
reaching their country's outpost in Batavia, the local Dutch officials,
angered over their problematic exploratory claims, incarcerated them for
infringing on the East India Company's monopoly. Le Maire was sent back to
Holland in chains and died en route. His was probably the greatest of all
Dutch exploratory voyages. His portrait appears on the verso, holding a
chart recording his strait. |
|
 Southeast
Asian Mainland
Cloppenburg /Mercator, 1630 (1632) :
India Orientalis. Excellent. 18 x 24.5 cm.
$475.
Engraved by Kaerius, this is an enlarged version of the corresponding map
from the Mercator Atlas Minor of Hondius. Though focusing on the mainland,
it contains a good early depiction of the Philippines.
This particular rendering of the Mercator-Hondius pattern was an attempt
to maintain more of the detail and data of the large, folio version with
the manageability and portability of the Atlas Minor.
|
|
 English-Text
Mercator Persia
Michael Sparke, 1635 :
The Kingdome of Persia. Excellent. 5.5 x 7.5 inches.
[sold] Printed in London,
with English text on verso, this map was struck from the Dutch copperplate
prepared by Jodocus Hondius for the Mercator Atlas Minor of 1607. |
|
 The
World Map of the Elder Blaeu
in fine original color
Willem Blaeu, ca. 1635 :
Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula. A
fine example in excellent original color. 41 x 55 cm. $22,000.
Perhaps the most famous world map of the seventeenth century, Blaeu's map
is "celebrated as one of the supreme examples of the map maker's art"
(-Shirley). Allegorical representations of the sun, moon, and five known
planets form a top panel, and illustrations of the seven wonders of the
world make up a bottom panel. On the left side are representations of the
elements, and along the right are the four seasons. Insets within Terra
Australis show the two Polar regions. The question of New Guinea's
insularity, and of some of the northernmost coasts of America, has been
left ambiguous. The map was actually engraved about 1606, subsequently
revised to reflect the discoveries of Le Maire. California remained a
peninsula throughout its life.
|
|
Rare
Spanish World Map
Printed in Madrid,
1639
A few repaired tears, not affecting
map proper. Some light browning. 12 x 16 inches.
$8500.
World Map from 1639
Madrid edition of the famous epic poem, Lusiadas.
Spanish maps are
excessively rare until the very late eighteenth century, and indeed there
are no earlier Spanish maps which one could normally hope to acquire.
The geography is
rather interesting, not following the established patterns of the Dutch,
Italians, or French. |
|
 French
Map of
Japan
Pierre du Val, c1682 :
Isles du Iapon. 4 x 5 inches. Excellent.
$295.
Handsomely engraved map of
Japan, based presominantly on the geography of
Sanson.
This
corresponds to Lutz Walter's second state:
"... as of 1682, at the latest, in an altered state, with town symbols
engraved over the original small circles, "Firando" added to the west of
Kyushu, protruding from the left border, and "I. de Coray" changed to
"Coray presqu'Isle attachee a la China". |
|
 Magnificent
Dutch Celestial Chart
Andreas Cellarius, 1660 :
Hemisphae alis coeli sphaerigrarii Bore et Terrae Cascenophia. Excellent.
Gold highlighting. 17 x 19.5 inches. $5500.
Warner (The Sky Explored) notes that "little is known of Cellarius beyond
the infornation gleaned from the title page of his beautiful and curious
astronomy book -- he was Rector of the Latin College at Hoorn, in Northern
Holland. |
|
 Stunning
Dutch Chart
Barbados, St. Lucia,
Martinique, Dominica, Antigua, St. Kitts, and Nevis
Paskaart van de Caribes...
Excellent. 20 x 23 inches.
$2200.
The van
Keulen firm enrolled in the booksellers' guild in 1678, and continued to
publish for over two centuries, through 1885. Early in their enterprise a
``mathematical practitioner'' by the name of Claas Jansz Vooght was hired
to design charts for their sea-atlas Usually the most highly regarded
mapmakers were retained by the Dutch East India Company; but when Joan
Blaeu II resigned his post as hydrographer with the Company in 1704,
Joannes was not hired in his place. A decade later his son Gerard, having
proven himself competent to create his own charts, was given the honor of
that position. |
|
 NW
Coast of America, Japan, Tartary
Pietro Marchetti, 1598
(1697) :
Tartariae sive Magni Chami Regni Typus. Excellent. 3 x 4 inches.
$150.
Miniature
Italian adaptation of the 1570 map of Ortelius. The seas above the
American Northwest and Asian Northeast are said to have been described
both by Pliny and Marc o Polo. |
|
 Coronelli
Globe Rings
Horizonte, e Meridiano. Vincenzo Coronelli, 1697 :
[Altro modo di collocare gli Globi publicati alle stampe dal P. Cosmografo
Coronelli...] Two worm holes near center (as visible in image). 5.5 x 7
inches. $95.
From the Epitome of
Coronelli, this depiction of one of the great cosmographer's globe's rings
spans a double-page of the small book.
|
|
 Long-lived
Cuba copperplate
Lasor, 1713 : Cuba. Excellent.
4 x 5.5 inches on full text sheet 12 x 8 inches.
$225.
From the copperplate
originally used for L'Isole piu famose del Mondo of Porcacchi (1572 and
subsequent), with maps by the outstanding Paduan engraver Girolamo Porro,
here recylced in the early eighteenth century.
|
Mississippian
Indians, 1720
Koning en Koningen van
de Missisippi.
John Law, 1720.
Excellent condition.
10.5 x 7 inches (including
engraved title), plus wide margins.
$350.
Full-page engraving
fancifully depicting a man and woman of the Mississippi region.
From the
book Het Groote Tafereel der Dwassheid, an account of the so-called
``Mississippi Bubble'' incident.
|
|
 Jesuit
Map of Egypt and the
Red Sea, 1726
Joseph Stocklein, 1726 :
Iter Cl. Viri Caroli Iacobi Poncet Medici Galli per
Aegyptum... 1700. Excellent. 9 x 7
inches.
$175.
The northeastern part of
Africa, showing the Nile and its origin (or one of its origins), the Red
Sea, and including a prominent placement of Mecca.
Published in Father Stocklein's
Der Neue Weltbott mit allerhand Nachrichten
dern Missionariorum Societatis Jesu.
|
|
 Dutch
Chart of Guinea, 1729
Guinee, Grand Pays de l'Afrique...
Peter Vander Aa, 1729. Excellent. 10.25 x 14.25 inches.
$350.
In the style of a sea
chart but with full inland detail, this map maintains the fine engraving
quality for which Vander aa'a maps are known.
Peter Vander Aa, born
in Leiden in 1659, died four
years after the publication of this map. Koeman writes that "During the period 1682-1733, an enormous quantity of printed matter was
published by him. There were a number of very spectacular works, such as
the Naaukeurige versameling der gedenkwaardigste zee-en land-reysen,
published between 1706 and 1708 in 28 volumes, and the Galerie agreable du
monde, completed in 1729, comprising 66 parts and bound in 27 volumes.
Apart from the 'voyages' and the Galerie agreable, several atlases and
picture-books like the Representation, oil Pon voit un grand nombre des
isles, cotes... and a work by N. de Fer: Les Forces de I''Europe. Asie,
Afrique et Amerique ou description des princip. villes avec lews
forteresses... (1726) appeared at Van der Aa's. The last mentioned work
contains a good quantity of maps." |
|
 Africa,
"crowded with erroneous detail"
Seutter, 1728 (Probst, c1760)
Africa Juxta Navigationes et
Observationes Recentissimas Aucta... 19.5 x 22.5 inches. Excellent.
$550.
Norwich (map 80) notes that Seutter
shows the Nile "not only originating in the south at Lakes Zaire and
Zaflan, but also continuing further south, the Abyssinian province of
Amhara is shown in the kingdom of Monomotapa. This map is in fact crowded
with erroneous detail."
|
|
 Anson
pillages Peru
George Anson, The burning of the Town
of Payta on the Coast of Santa Fee in the South Sea. London, 1748.
Excellent. 20 x 9.5 inches.
[sold]
Anson's circumnavigation, though in itself contributing little to
geographic knowledge, was instrumental in setting the groundwork for the
important English voyage that followed in the 1760s and 1770s.
Anson's capture of the Spanish vessel Nuestra Senhora del Carmin, led to
intelligence about the town of Paita which convinced Anson that he could
capture the town and then demand ransom from its governor. When the
governor refused to cooperate, Anson burned the town, though it should
also be mentioned that prisoners he took, including women, were reportedly
well-treated.
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 Delisle's
North America
Tobias C. Lotter, ca. 1770 :
America Septentrionalis Concinnata juxta Observationes Dnn Academi
Regalis Scientiarum et nonnullorum aliorum, et juxta annotationes
recentissimas Per D. de L'Isle Excellent. Original color. 18 x 22.75
inches.
$1100.
Based on the Delisle map of 1700, this decorative map by the prolific
German publisher Lotter demonstrates the long period over which Delisle's
map remained influential.
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 Philippines,
based on Velarde, 1785
Antonio Zatta, 1785
Isole Filippine.Excellent. Original color. 16 x 12 inches.
$1600.
The extremely complex Philippine archipelago was gradually unravelled by
Spanish mariners from the first encounter with the islands in 1521, and
matured in the early eighteenth century with the very rare map of Velarde.
Several fine derivative maps followed, including this attractively
engraved Italian work.
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 Otto
von Kotzebue, 1816
Extremely Rare First Map of Honolulu
The
original Russian printing
Excellent condition, particularly for
such a large work. Heavy paper. 46 x 26 inches + generous margins.
$26,000
The Library of Congress's Gary Fitzpatrick (Early
Mapping of Hawai'i, p46-48) state that Kotzebue's map is of such rarity
that "it has escaped the notice of many scholars and the general public".
Indeed we are not aware of any other
copy of this map in private hands. The condition of the present example is
superior to that in the Library of Congress. Apparently never having been
opened over the years, there is not even the expected split at the center
where the two folds meet.
With the arrival of Otto von
Kotzebue in Hawaii in November-December of 1816, and September-October of
1817, meticulous large-scale charting of Hawaiis coasts began.
Explanations by his colleague Dr. Hrner show that the chronometer had not
entirely supplanted others methods of fixing longitude: The determination
of the longitude is made partly by chronometers, and partly by lunar
distances; with respect to the first, it is well known that the best
instruments of this kind, when they are exposed to a considerable and
continued change of temperature, gradually alter the rate of going, and it
seems too as if the effects of the cold or heat upon the watches do not
become observable, till after some days have elapsed... due to the
thickening or thinning of the very small portion of oil which these
instruments still require, even when the friction is diminished by means
of diamonds. Lunar distances are still the best means of determining the
longitude; however they must be observed in considerable numbers, and, if
possible, with instruments that magnify powerfully.
Oahus southern coast, to become the
epicenter of the Hawaiian Islands but which had been poorly mapped by the
earliest European visitors, was a principal object of his stay. He found
Honolulu looking like a European harbor and Chinese porcelains replacing
native eating vessels, believed that England has taken the Sandwich
Islands under her particular protection, perhaps already, in silence,
considers them as her property and will certainly take possession of them
as soon as circumstances shall permit.
Kotzebue kept a tight ship: We had
scarcely cast anchor when a great number of Hawaiian women surrounded the
Rurick... When he refused their access to the ship, the amicable nymphs
sang to us some love-songs, and turned back much astonished at our
cruelty.
Early on the 27th of November, 1816,
Kotzebue took the course to the west point of Wahititi Bay [Waikiki],
which is not to be mistaken, on account of the conical mountain there. In
a footnote, he explains that the English call this mountain Diamond Hill
(Diamond Head), an appellation derived from the crystals found there; or,
as Byron observed when there in 1825, so called because some crystals
found there had been mistaken by ignorant European sailors diamonds,
which had resulted in a taboo being placed on the area for a time.
Whereas today Kauai is known as the
Garden Isle, the term was earlier associated with Oahu. Kotzebue found
that Oahu (Woahoo) is acknowledged, both by Europeans and by the natives,
to be the most fruitful of the whole group; it is called the garden of the
Sandwich islands, and it has a right to that name, on account of its
extraordinary high state of cultivation, united with the greatest natural
beauties.
Vancouvers fondness for Waikiki,
Kotzebue wrote, had caused him to miss the superior harbor of Honolulu.
We sailed past the village of Wahititi, near which Vancouver cast an
anchor in a very dangerous situation, not knowing that he was in the
vicinity of a most commodious harbour, and saw through our telescopes the
village of Hana-rura [Honolulu], close to which is the harbour of the same
name. Honolulu harbor, before the extensive dredging and filling that
made it into the harbor we know today, was accessed only by a narrow
opening through the coral reef created by the outflow of Nuuanu Stream
an opening which did not allude to the fine harbor within.
Although Vancouver missed the
delights veiled by the unassuming entrance, two vessels, the Jackal and
Prince Lee Boo, entered it in late 1793, and three years later William
Broughton in the Providence is believed to have surveyed it; but his
charts, if they were made, are not extant. It was Broughton who is
responsible for the name Honolulu called by the Hawaiians simply the
harbor of Kou, Broughton dubbed it Fair Haven, which is Honolulu in
Hawaiian.
Kotzebues is the earliest surviving
chart of Honolulu, preserving the harbor in its natural state. As with
Kotzebues other charts of bays and harbors, the Honolulu chart is
important not only for its detail and accuracy, but additionally for the
topographical features he included. If merely useful landmarks for his
contemporaries, these are now invaluable records of what occupied Hawaiian
shores during this critical transitional period. He records the
interconnected, irrigated fields where the Hawaiian grew taro, and the
coral stone fish ponds by Nuuanu Stream and southeast of the harbor
entrance, contained on both sides by a broad coral reef, and shows the
then-new fort. Two details are illustrated above; the entire chart can be
seen as the inset on the map of Krusenstern (fig 217).
The coordinates for their anchorage
were fixed with remarkable accuracy. Latitude, derived from the mean of
our daily observations, was determined to be 21 17ʹ57ʺ, and longitude,
calculated from the mean of lunar observations, which were repeated for
several succeeding days, was 157 52ʹ 00ʺ W. This would correspond to
what is now Kakaako Park.
Kotzebues mapping of southern Oahu
brought him the islands splendor. On the morning of the 8th of December,
1816, at nine oclock, provided with a small compass and a
pocket-sextant, I began my journey with Dr. Eschscholtz, and first mate,
Chramtschenko, who was to assist in surveying and making plans of the
coast. Having walked inland from Honolulu for a couple of hours, they
stopped in a romantic valley, where we seated ourselves under shady
bread-fruit trees, on the banks of a salt lake, the owner of which, a
distinguished Jerri, derives considerable profit from it, as the banks of
this lake are covered with the finest salt. There a type of flightless
bird was seen, and one specimen shot. Kotzebue used conjecture about a
certain wild ducks migratory patterns to theorize that an undiscovered
Pacific island lay at about 45 N.
Kotzebue tried to fix the height of
the islands principal mountains, reversing the relative heights of Mauna
Loa and Mauna Kea. Such estimates, even if not cited numerically on maps,
helped with the growing use of three-dimensional shading to depict
mountains and other topographical features, though this technique was
difficult to regulate and often produced misleading impressions of height.
Mountain height was of concern to navigation for the effects it had on
winds. I advise every navigator who sails from Owhyee to Woahoo,
Kotzebue wrote, to keep near the coast, where the land and sea-winds blow
the freshest; whereas at a distance of the several miles from land, calms
prevail, which are caused by the Mouna Roa.
While in Hawaii, Kotzebue was told
by a Mr. Wilcox, owner of an American vessel named the Traveller of
Philadelphia, of islands discovered by a Captain Andrew Walther, low
coral islands, overgrown with woods, and about thirty miles in
circumference. He fixed the latitude at 3 48ʹ and the longitude, by
chronometer, at 159 15ʹ. This was probably an independent discovery of
Tabuaeran, first found by Edmund Fanning in 1798, in the Line Islands
(Kiribati).
Kotzebue lamented the harm being
done Hawaii by the dregs of sailors and missionaries alike. It is to be
expected that the good disposition of the Sandwich islanders will soon be
entirely corrupted, he wrote, by the bad examples of the several sailors
that every year took residence in Hawaii after being discharged for bad
conduct. But the missionaries do them almost more injury, because, by the
religious hatred which they excite, they destroy whole nations.
Change, indeed, was dramatic.
Whaling ships began arriving in 1819, and a company of missionaries on the
Thaddeus the following year. The need for a pier in Honolulu Harbor was
first remedied in 1825 by sinking the hull of a derelict ship, near what
is now Pier 12, where Nuuana Avenue and Bethel Street end. |
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 Dramatic
Early Hawaii View
Vaillant, 1840, Echouage aux Iles Sandwich. 9 x 12 inches.
Excellent.
$750.
In
1831 the Hawaiian monarchy, manipulated by the complex political scheming
of her various European colonizers, ousted all Catholic missionaries.
Auguste-Nicolas Vaillant arrived in 1836 with a protest from the French
government of the expulsion. Although he secured tolerance for the
Catholic presence in the islands, they were expelled again in 1837. These
lithographs of island life which accompanied the account of his voyage are
among the most significant and beautiful surviving records of early
Hawaii. They preserve Hawaii as it was in 1836.
The
present lithograph is a dramatic depiction of the Bonite's crew attempting
to beach her longboat, despite rough ocean and rocky shore. The view shows
that they have lost at least one oar and are heading for protruding rocks;
several Hawaiians run into the water to warn, direct, or assist them. |
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 Honolulu,
from a government survey
Map of Honolulu / December 27, 1893 /
I hereby certify the accuracy of this map. Charles L Carter December 9,
1893. Excellent. 11.75 x 14.75 inches.
[sold]
Lithographed map
showing Honolulu from the harbor, with the U.S.S. Boston marked, inland
through the "U.S. Legation" on the corner of Nuuanu and School Streets. |
