Maps > World & Continents (4 items)
 
Sort by: 
 
ALLARD, Carel (1648-1709)

[The World and Continents - Five Maps]

Amsterdam: [circa 1705]. Copper-engraved maps, with original outline colour, in very good condition. Sheet size: 21 1/4 x 25 1/4 inches.

A superb set of maps the World and Continents by the eminent Dutch cartographer

Allard's World map, Planisphærium Terrestre, sive Terrarum Orbis, represents a dramatic departure from the classical Dutch tradition and prefigures and influences the great age of Enlightenment cartography that flourished in Germany and the Netherlands. In the place of the conventional allegorical personifications, he surrounds his double hemispheres with twelve additional spheres, each depicting an aspect of the Earth purely as an object of scientific inquiry.

Recentissima Novi Orbis Sive Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Tabula is Allard's very handsome map of North and South America. Benefiting from late 17th century French maps of the two continents, it shows all five Great Lakes and a well-delineated Mississippi River. An inset in the lower-left corner depicts what was then known of New Zealand. The cartouche is especially attractive, inhabited by exotic animals and scenes relating to mankind's eternal search for gold.

Accuratissima Europae Tabula, Multis locis correcta, et Nuperimè edita is Allard's highly detailed map of Europe.

The map of Africa, Novissima et Perfectissima Africae Tabula, is beautifully coloured and features a black cherub riding a lion, while a regal woman, personifying Africa, beholds the scene.

Exactissima Asiae Delineatio is partially based on the large-scale maps of northeastern Europe prepared by D. Nicolai Witsen (1641-1717), the Burgomaster of Amsterdam. It is thought that he was privy to maps of Siberia, which were the result of surveys commissioned by Peter the Great.

Koeman, Atlantes Neelandici, Al.1, Al.4, Al.10, Al.30, & Al.73

#6783$29,000.00
 
 
HONDIUS, Henricus (1597 - 1651) and Jan JANSSON (1588-1664)

[The World and Continents - Five Maps]

Amsterdam: Jan Jansson, 1649. Copper-engraved maps, from the "Novus Atlas," German text edition, in excellent condition. Sheet size: 19 5/8 x 23 1/4 inches.

An excellent set of the World and Continents, by Hondius and Jansson, two of the Netherlands' greatest cartographers

This handsome set of the World and Continents comes from the 1649 German edition of Jan Jansson and Henricus Hondius' Novus Atlas, Das Ist: Welt-Beschreibung mit allerhand schönen newen auszführ lichen Taffeln Inhaltende Die Königreiche und Länder des gantzen Erdtreichs. This monumental work was the inheritor of the legacy of the great atlas first published in 1595 by Rumold Mercator, and later re-issued and revised by Jodocus Hondius and family. In 1630, Willem Blaeu dramatically entered the land atlas market, compelling Jansson and Hondius to mount this powerful reprise.

The World map, Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula, originally dates from 1630, and is present here in the second state, dated '1641', but printed in 1649 using the same plate. It is richly decorated in Baroque style, and is most memorable for the four portraits that adorn it: Julius Caesar and Claudius Ptolemy, at the top; and Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius Sr., at the bottom. Also featured are the four elements of Classical science, illustrated in accordance with Greek and Roman mythology. At the bottom of the composition, between the two hemispheres, are personifications of the four continents. Europe is shown as an enthroned queen with a scepter and a book, symbolising power and knowledge. Alluding to the colonial aspirations of the European powers, Europe accepts gifts offered in outstretched hands by Native Americans, Africans and Asians. In the map, California is shown as an island, a fairly recent innovation, curiously not depicted on the accompanying map of the Americas.

The map of Europe, Europa Exactissime Descripta, originally dated 1631, is present here in the second state. Many details regarding the configuration and political boundaries derive from Mercator's map of Europe. The dedication to Louis XIII of France alludes to the alliance forged between France and the United Provinces in 1630, a pact engineered by Cardinal Richelieu which helped guarantee Holland's independence from Spain. (Spain's continued effort to re-invest Holland was one of the ongoing causes of the Thirty Years' War).

Africae nova Tabula, first printed in 1631, and present here in the third state, is a fascinating map that reveals the extent to which the interior of the continent largely remained an enigma to Europeans, with the ancient myth that the Nile was fed by two large lakes taking precedence. The coasts, portrayed with relative accuracy, were what really interested the Dutch, who by virtue of their recent seizure of the fortress of Elmina on the Gold Coast had become major protagonists in the African slave trade. The map is embellished with numerous African animals, including ostriches, crocodiles, lions and a griffin. The sea is inhabited by ships, flying fish, sea monsters and the god Neptune.

The map of Asia, Asia recens summa cura delineata, was originally printed in 1631, and is present here in the second state, distinguished from the former by the addition of 'Janssonius' as the named publisher. It is dedicated to Eilhard Lubbin, a cartographer and mathematician of Rostock. The image of the Far East is significantly improved from Mercator's example, reflecting information derived from Dutch traders and Jesuit priests.

America noviter delineata was first issued by Jodocus Hondius Jr. in 1618, and is present here in the fourth state. Geographically, the map predates the 'California as an Island' phenomenon, and does not include LeMaire's discovery of Cape Horn. The map is elegantly embellished with merchant ships and sea monsters.

Burden, The Mapping of North America I, 192; Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici I (1997 ed.), 1:424/27; Norwich, Maps of Africa, 34; Shirley, The Mapping of the World, 336

#12170$28,500.00
 
 
SEUTTER, Matthäus (1678-1757)

[The World and Continents - Five Maps]

Augsburg: circa 1730. Copper-engraved maps, with full original colour, Worlld map with losses to bottom margin, and with re-enforcements to the top and bottom margins. Americas map has been re-backed along bottom margin and part of the right margin, trimmed close to or within platemark on right and left sides. Asia map water-stained near bottom of centerfold, and mild discoloration along centrefold, bottom margin is re-backed with repaired losses. Africa map has a water stain on the left sideborder and into the image of the map around the Cape Verde Islands, and at the bottom margin. Bottom margin is re-backed, with repaired minor losses and tears. Europe map expertly re-backed, repaired tears and minor losses to centerfold and on either side of the centerfold. Discoloration and fading in places. . Sheet size: each 20 3/4 x 23 1/8 inches.

Superb maps of the World and the Continents by one of the great eighteenth-century German cartographers.

George Matthäus Seutter learned the map publishing business as an apprentice to J. B. Homann of Nuremberg. In 1707, he moved to Augsburg where he established himself as Homann's main rival, becoming Geographer to the Imperial Court in 1715. Seutter copied many geographical details from his former protégé's maps, and the rival houses duelled with each other in order to see which one could best epitomise the southern German Baroque ethic, with its lavish decorative embellishments and iconography of Roman Catholic piety.

The World Map entitled Diversi Globi Terr-Aquei Statione Variante... exemplifies the new world view of the eighteenth-century. Although the familiar twenty-four Classical windheads still adorn the image, in place of the traditional allegorical scenes, the map is really a collection of "scientific" perspectives of Earth. Around the large hemispheres of the Old and New Worlds, there are polar views, "oblique" views, and perspectives illustrating the sphericality of the Earth. The Earth is no longer a mysterious object, but is now quantifiable, progressively subject to the empirical gaze of mankind.

The map of North and South America, Novus Orbis sive America Meridionalis et Septentrionalis..., features resplendent examples of Seutter's cartouches. The title cartouche is inhabited by specimens of exotic birds, flying fish, and a native chief shaded by an umbrella. Surrounding a descriptive note about the New World, in the upper left, Europeans are seated at a table while natives kneel and deposit riches before a crucifix surmounted by the Virgin Mary with the cross, a chalice and a book. The map shows California as an island, at the same time featuring many coastal sites including San Clemente and Santa Barbara.

Asia cum omnibus Imperiis, Provinciis, Statibus et Insulis... shows the continent during the zenith of both the Mughal and Chinese Empire, the latter prominently featuring The Great Wall. The cartouches feature Asian princes, a Chinese scholar with a cup of tea, an elephant, a lion and a pair of warriors. The note to the Reader in the upper right, is a homily on the ultimate importance of eternal and spiritual values over the evanescent values of temporal riches.

Africa iuxta navigationes et observationes recentissimas aucta et in sua Regna et Status divisa... is beautifully decorated with a large, ornate cartouche by Gottfried Rogg that features natives, pyramids, and indigenous animals such as a leopard, a lion and a crocodile. Faithful to the period, the map is full of interesting geographical speculations, revealing that Europeans actually knew very little about the regions of Africa not immediately on the coasts or the banks of major rivers. Seutter allows the Ptolemaic myth that the Nile is fed by two large lakes to persist.

Europa Religionis Christianæ, Morum et Pacis ac Belli Artium Cultu Omnium Terrarum Orbis Partium Præstantiss... is the title of the Europe map. The cartouche avows the claims of the title: "[Christian Europe in all the World the most Accomplished in the Ways of Peace and War and Cultivation of the Arts]", as a chain of cherubs descend from the Godhead along with the symbols of Catholicism. A queen at the left of the title represents good government, and below Athena and Apollo represent war and the arts.

Tooley & Bricker, Landmarks of Mapmaking, p. 167-170.

#6206$18,000.00
 
 
VISSCHER, Nicolaes (1649-1702)

[FOUR CONTINENTS] Europa delineata et recens edita; Asiæ nova delineata; Africæ accurata tabula; Nova et accuratissima totius Americæ descriptio

[Amsterdam: Visscher, n.d., but c. 1658]. Four hand-coloured copper engraved maps. Sheet size: 19 3/4 x 23 inches.

A set of the four continental maps from the Golden Age of Dutch cartography

The Dutch were especially well equipped for the role they played in the European discovery and colonization of the wider world. Unencumbered by any desire to impose their religious or political beliefs, they simply wanted to trade commodities and profit thereby. The ascendancy of the Dutch in global trade lasted only as long as they could withstand the English and French, who, with much larger populations, ultimately overwhelmed them, but for a considerable portion of the 17th century, the Dutch were supreme.

The outlines of the world the Dutch merchantmen discovered was conveyed to the rest of Europe (as Spain and Portugal did not) in beautifully engraved and coloured maps that resonated with authority. In these four maps by Visscher, with only a few exceptions (Hokkaido, Australia, New Zealand and the mythical Anian), the continents are delineated and defined in a remarkably accurate way. This was the accumulation of the day to day observations of sea captain / tradesmen, who at this time gave the world the first comprehensive sea charts.

The Dutch were tradesmen and seafarers, not conquerors or settlers, so the fundamental advancement in geographical knowledge was in coastlines and rivers, as if in preparation for the great movements of peoples to come. The interiors derive from other, less reliable sources, some of them ancient as the Ptolemaic interior of Africa.

The four maps form a balanced composition and an aesthetically appealing portrait of the newly discovered World. Visscher's cartouches are light, optimistic and exuberant, happily implying a bright future.

Each of the four maps bears a dedicatory cartouche to a prominent Dutch statesman and illustrates his coat of arms, usually surrounded by gods, goddesses and angels.

Betz, 87; Norwich 55; Burden, 332.

#20415$15,000.00
 
Copyright © 2002-2011 Donald A. Heald