SMITH, Captain John (1580-1631)

Virginia

London: [1631]. Engraved map. Sheet size: 13 1/4 x 16 13/16 inches. Plate mark: 12 7/8 x 16 1/4 inches.

"One of the most important printed maps of America ever produced and certainly one of the greatest influence. It became the prototype for the area for half a century" (Burden.)

John Smith's map of Virginia shows the present states of Virginia and Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the most important cartographical works related to North America in the 17th century. There are twelve known states of the map, and it is present here in the ninth state. "In June 1608, Smith and thirteen companions set out in an open barge for Cape Henry to discover -- that is, to explore -- the Chesapeake, starting with the Eastern Shore. This was the first of two voyages, and altogether he spent three months that summer going around the Bay. From observations on these trips, he created one of the great maps of the colonial era, so compellingly authoritative that derivatives of it stayed in print for a century, and nothing significantly better than it appeared for sixty years" - Woolridge. "Ninth state, with alteration to Boolers bush instead of Bollers bush, and three new place-names, (1) Blands C: and (2) Downes dale near Bolus river, and (3) Washeborne C: near Cape Charles, but with the [Purchas] page numbers still 1692 and 1693. This state is in the Church-Huntington copy of the 1625 issue of the book, in contemporary binding.... It is also found in two of the New York Public Library copies of Purchas's PILGRIMES, and is inserted in one of its copies of the GENERALL HISTORIE of 1624 in modern binding" - Eames (in Sabin).

Burden, The Mapping of North America, 164. Wilberforce Eames, A Dictionary OF Books Relating To America Vol. XX (New York, 1927), p.229. William Woolridge, Mapping Virginia (Charlottesville, 2012), p.33.

Item #34876

Price: $57,500.00