Maps > South America (16 items)
 
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BAUR, C.F.

[The Americas] Neueste Karte von America.... New Chart of America showing the tracks and distances of steam vessels, with the distances to the principal ports of Europe, to the great Lines of Railway and the submarine Cables, constructed for the Use of Geographie [sic.] commercial.... Carte Nouvelle de l'Amerique...

Stuttgart: Julius Maier, circa 1885]. Tinted lithographic map, with title in German, English and French, with original outline colour, on six folding sheets, backed onto linen, and edged with blue cloth tape, in excellent condition, in modern blue cloth box. Sheet size: 63 1/2 x 48 1/2 inches.

A rare and highly detailed monumental wall map of the Western Hemisphere

This fascinating map excellently embodies the ethic of empiricist cartography that prevailed in the nineteenth-century. All of North and South America is depicted in great detail with very assured geographical accuracy for the time. A very attractive aesthetic effect is created, with landmasses tinted in a shade of orange, juxtaposed against the seas, which are coloured in a golden brown hue. The various political boundaries of the various states are outlined in bright, resplendent colours. The seas feature a wealth of hydrological information, most notably the great currents that traverse the oceans, notably the Humboldt Current in the Pacific and the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic. The lines of major shipping routes and the distances between key ports are also noted on the map.

The depiction of North America is most interesting, while the American west had by this time been settled in many areas, not all of its territories had yet been admitted into the Union as states. The Canadian Prairies are captured just before the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and the great wave of settlement that would result. The depiction of the Arctic is fascinating, as while the southern part of the Arctic Archepelago is charted, the most northerly regions, such as Ellesmere Island, are absent from the map, totally unknown to explorers. Alaska, which was purchased by the U.S. from Russia in 1867 is shown to be a complete wilderness.

The islands of the Caribbean are shown to be almost entirely under the colonial hegemony of the various European powers, and the nations of South America exhibit very different borders than the ones which we are familiar with today. Colombia still owned Panama, and straight, arbitrary lines mark the international boundaries in the heart of the continent - the still mysterious Amazon Basin. Bolivia is shown to own a piece of the Pacific Coast by the Atacama Desert, and Peru's borders extend further south than they do today. The map shows these countries as they appeared before the Pacific War (1881-3), during which Chile roundly defeated its northern neighbours, and seized three littoral provinces.

The map features six very interesting cartographic insets. In each of the top corners are insets of the polar regions showing both of these extremities of the globe to be somewhat enigmatic. Towards the lower left of the map is a detailed inset featuring the most populated region of the United States, the Washington-Boston corridor. Another inset depicts the elevation of the topography of North America, while towards the lower right of the map, another inset similarly details South America. A most curious aspect is featured in the final inset, an 'ethnographic map' of the Americas, which shows which parts of the hemisphere are inhabited by a majority of people of indigenous versus European ancestry.

#15162$3,500.00
 
 
D'ANVILLE, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon (1697-1782) - Robert SAYER & John BENNETT (publishers)

A Map of South America .... from Mr. d'Anville with several improvements and additions, and the newest discoveries

London: Robert Sayer & John Bennett, July 1st, 1779. Copper-engraved map on four sheets, the two northern-most sheets joined and the two southern-most sheets joined, with period hand-colouring in outline, overall sheet size (if all the sheets were to be joined): 42 x 48 inches. Fine condition.

A magnificent late 18th-century wall map of South America, from Thomas Jefferys' "American Atlas".

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville was the spiritual successor to Guillaume De l'Isle in the sense that he maintained the rigorous standard for accuracy that De l'Isle had established. D'Anville was the last French mapmaker to have an international reputation, superior to all his cartographic colleagues, as witnessed by the respect shown by English cartographers and publishers during an era when the two countries were often at war and always hostile to one another.

Using d'Anville's map as the model, the present map was published by Sayer and Bennett in Thomas Jefferys' The American Atlas in 1779. As a collection, the American Atlas stands as the most comprehensive, detailed and accurate survey of the Americas at the beginning of the Revolution. Jefferys was the leading English cartographer of the 18th century. From about 1750, he published maps of the English American colonies that were among the most significant produced in the period. As Geographer to the Prince of Wales, and after 1761, Geographer to the King, Jefferys was well placed to have access to the best surveys of America, and many of his maps held the status of "official work". Jefferys died on 20th November 1771, and his successors, Robert Sayer and John Bennett, gathered the separately-issued maps together (including the present example) and republished them in book form as The American Atlas.

Cf. Howes J-81; cf. Phillips Atlases 1165 and 1166; cf. Sabin 35953; cf. Streeter Sale I, 72 (1775 edition); cf. Walter Ristow (editor) Thomas Jefferys The American Atlas London 1776, facsimile edition, Amsterdam 1974.

#20655$1,750.00
 
 
De L'ISLE, Guillaume and Covens & Mortier

Carte D'Amerique Dressée pour l'Usage du Roy...1739. America Accurate in Imperia, Regna, Status & Populos Divisa, ad Usum Ludovici XV, Galliarum Regis

Amsterdam: Covens & Mortier, [1742]. Engraving with period outline colour. Some mild soiling. Discolouration at centerfold. Sheet size: 21 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches.

An elegant map of North and South America, the most accurate to date, produced for the "usage du Roy," Louis XV.

Guillaume de l'Isle (1675-1726) was the son of a cartographer and pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who, among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy to the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De l'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive.

Jean (Johannes) Covens and Corneille (Cornelius) Mortier were brothers-in-law, who carried on the book publishing business established by Pierre Mortier in Amsterdam in 1685. Pierre Mortier's company owed much of its success to his access to French publishers, whose publications he re-issued in handsome editions.The elder Mortier died in 1711; his wife continued the firm until she died in 1719. In 1721, Covens and Mortier formed a partnership, Covens having married Agatha Mortier in the same year. They continued the business by publishing enlarged editions of Sanson, Jaillot, and De L'Isle, as well as some of the later Dutch cartographical masters such as De Wit and Allard, and of course Pierre Mortier.

This map is from an edition of De L'Isle entitled, Atlas Nouveau, Contenant Toutes Les Parties Du Monde, Ou sont exactement Remarquées les Empires, Monarchies, Royaumes, Etats, Republiques &c. Par Guillaume de l'Isle. Premier Géographe de sa Majesté. It is his map of North and South America shown on a large enough scale that western Europe and Africa are included. The map includes the rectification of South America's eastern coast line, correcting a map of South America whose Chilean-Argentinian peninsula swung to the west. The map also includes a Prime Meridian declared by Louis XIII, but not adopted and Pope Alexander VI's Line of Demarcation that divided the world (outside of Europe) between Portugal and Spain. Finally, it should be noted that De l'Isle resisted the temptation to depict California as an island, which was being done by many mapmakers of the period.

Koeman, C&M 7, #98

#15052$4,500.00
 
 
DUVAL, Pierre (1618-1683)

[The Americas and the Western Hemisphere] L'Amerique Suivant les dernieres Relations avec les Routes que l'on tient pour Les Indes Occidentales

Paris: M[ademois]elle DuVal, dated 1679 [but 1688]. Copper-engraved wall map, with original outline colour, from Duval's "Carte de Geographie," on four unjoined sheets, expertly re-margined with laid paper on two sides of each sheet, compensating margins at the places where the maps were previously joined. Each sheet 19 1/8 x 23 5/8 inches, if joined the sheets would form a map measuring 34 x 45 inches.

A magnificent seventeenth century wall map of the Americas and the Western Hemisphere by one of the greatest French cartographers

This superb map of the New World evinces mid-seventeenth century French geographical knowledge, based largely upon the work of the great French cartographer, Nicolas Sanson, Duval's father-in-law. It is also an excellent example of the French cartographic aesthetic, exalting clarity and classical elegance. Duval, with some geographical modernizations, based this map on his smaller 1655 rendering of the same subject.

California is depicted as an island, as rendered by contemporary Dutch cartographers such as Frederick de Wit and Carel Allard. A speculative aspect also dominates the portrayal of the rest of the American Southwest, such as the labelling of the mythical land of "Quivira" on the mainland, and the depiction of the Rio Grande as having its source in the fictitious "Lac de Conibas," and its terminus in the Gulf of California.

The depiction of the American Northeast is somewhat more progressive than that shown by Sanson. New York, Boston, Cape Cod, Virginia and Maryland are each specifically named. Up into the interior, Duval shows all five Great Lakes, however the boundaries of Lakes Superior and Michigan ("Lac des Puans") are left undetermined.

Most of the American Southeast is shown as a part of the great Spanish territory of "Floride," which extends north into the Carolinas. South Carolina is labeled "Floride Françoise," and "Charles-Fort," the abortive French settlement on Port Royal Sound from the 1560s, is labeled here.

Interestingly, this map seems to have been a rhetorical device intended to promote the idea of a Northwest Passage that runs through the Canadian Arctic and then through a supposed strait into the Pacific Ocean. Duval makes the case clearly by stating that "It is believed that this strait communicates between the Seas of the North and the South". Supporting this notion, the map features the track of a supposed 1665 voyage that headed through the Davis and Hudson's Straits, and over through the "Mer Glaciale," heading towards "Iesso," a mythical land located to the north of Japan. The South Pacific and Australasia are shown to be largely a mystery to the European consciousness, with New Zealand being connected to the mythical "Terre de Quir."

The map is beautifully embellished with two Baroque cartouches including allegorical and native figures, and sailing ships. Each mapsheet is also adorned with side panels of text that explain political and geographical details of the regions featured. This map is the second state of Duval's map of the New World, printed under the privilege of his daughter, who was one of the inheritors of his firm upon his death in 1683. The imprint in the general title is altered to read "Chez Mlle. Du Val, Fille de l' Auteur Sur le Quay de l'Orloge, proche le coin de la rue de Harlay a l'ancien Buis."

Each of the four sheets is separately titled, as follows: [upper left] "Le Nouveau Mexique et La Terre de Jesso"; [lower left] "La Mer de Sud dit autrement Mer Pacifique"; [upper right] "La Mer de Nort ou sont La Nle. France, La Floride [&c.]"; [lower right] "Le Perou, Le Chili, La Magellanique, La Plata, et Le Bresil".

Burden, The Mapping of North America II, 508; McLaughlin, California as an Island, 66; Pastoureau, Les Atlas Francais XVIe-XVIIe siecles, Duval II-F, maps: 10,11,13,14 (State 2); Wagner, Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, 414; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West, 60.

#6774$14,500.00
 
 
HONDIUS, Henricus (1597-1651)

[North & South America] America Noviter Delineata

Amsterdam: Jansson & Hondius, 1633. Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour, centerfold reinforced, in very good condition. Sheet size: 18 x 21 1/8 inches.

The celebrated 1618 Hondius map of the Americas, in the third state

The Henrick Hondius map of the Americas is a modification of the map his father had published in 1606. It derives from a map his brother, Jodocus, published in 1618. It is, essentially, Europe's geographical understanding of North and South America for the first half of the 17th century.

Several major corrections had been made to the 1606 Hondius map. The St. Lawrence Bay and River are much improved, and at the opposite end, Tierra del Fuego has been separated, however nebulously, from the great Terra Incognita, thought (correctly) to exist since ancient times. The rather assertive outgrowth of Virginia in the 1606 map has been modified to reflect more accurately the eastward swelling at North Carolina. Interestingly, Hondius' next map of North America (1636) adopted the increasingly popular notion that California was an island, and it greatly advanced that belief.

The map includes inset maps of the North and South Poles. The nicely drawn ships and sea monsters add to the pleasant aesthetic effect of the map.

Burden, The Mapping of North America I, 192; Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, Me 37, E 17

#6999$6,000.00
 
 
[MEAD, Braddock, alias John GREEN (c.1688-1757)]

A Chart of the North and South America including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with the nearest coasts of Europe, Africa and Asia

London: Thomas Jefferys, 19 Feb 1753. Folio (24 x 16 1/2 inches). Engraved map of the Americas, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans on 6 double-page copper engraved sheets, with original outline colour (each sheet 24 x 30 1/4 inches). (Bound without the letterpress colour key slip, 1" square repaired area in lower right corner of the image area of the first map sheet). Contemporary marbled-paper over pasteboard, early manuscript title lettering in ink to backstrip, modern morocco-backed cloth box, green morocco title labels to spine and upper cover.

A very fine copy of this rare and fascinating atlas by an Irish cartographer of great ability: Braddock Mead (who worked under the name John Green) was one of the most gifted mapmakers working in London in the first half of the 18th-century. This atlas (essentially an unassembled six sheet wall map centered on the Americas] accurately documents European exploration in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans up to the mid-eighteenth century.

Rare: only the Dupont copy and two others are listed as having sold at auction in the past thirty years. The six sheets of the atlas cover an area from 185 degrees west to 20 degrees east, and from 60 degrees south to 82 degrees north. The atlas records the tracks of all the latest voyages to the Arctic and the Bering Straits, as well as the Dutch voyages to the South Pacific. Overall, the work offers a clear record of the discoveries that had been made in the area as of 1753, just before an explosion of Western activity in the Pacific and the start of the search, in earnest, for the Northwest Passage. Each of the six double-page sheets includes tables recording distances and positions, the voyages of various explorers, and additional miscellaneous notes (many referring to other maps and mapmakers). Each map is individually titled along upper margin as follows:
Sheet I: 'Chart containing part of the Icy Sea with the adjacent Coast of Asia and America'
Sheet 2: 'Chart comprising Greenland with the Countries and Islands about Baffin's and Hudson's Bays'
Sheet 3: 'Chart containing the Coasts of California, New Albion, and Russian Discoveries to the North; with the Peninsula of Kamchatka, in Asia, opposite thereto; and Islands, dispersed over the Pacific Ocean, to the North of the Line'
Sheet 4: 'Chart of the Atlantic Ocean, with the British, French, & Spanish Settlements in North America, and the West Indies'
Sheet 5: 'Chart containing the greater part of the South Sea to the South of the Line, with the Islands dispersed thro' the same'
Sheet 6: 'Chart of South America, comprehending the West Indies, with the Adjacent Islands, in the Southern Ocean, and the South Sea'

Jefferys, the leading British mapmaker of the mid-eighteenth century, became geographer to the Prince of Wales in 1746 and geographer to the King in 1760. He published a remarkable number of maps and charts, many of the North American continent. "The genius behind Jefferys in his shop was a brilliant man who at this time went by the alias of John Green. He made a great six-sheet map of North and South America (1753), concerning which he said, 'The English charts of America being for the general very inaccurate, I came to a resolution to publish some new ones for the use of British navigators.'

In addition to his extensive cartographic abilities, Green's personal history also stands out from amongst the biographies of other 18th-century British map makers. John Green was born Braddock Mead in Ireland before 1688, married in Dublin in 1715 and around 1717 moved to London. He was imprisoned in 1728 for trying to defraud an Irish heiress. He also worked with Chambers on his Universal Dictionary. After he got out of gaol, he took the name of Green, and subsequently worked for Cave, Astley, and Jefferys. Mead 'had a number of marked characteristics as a cartographer ... One was his ability to collect, to analyze the value of, and to use a wide variety of sources; these he acknowledged scrupulously on the maps he designed and even more fully in accompanying remarks. Another outstanding characteristic was his intelligent compilation and careful evaluation of reports on latitudes and longitudes used in the construction of his maps, which he also entered in tables on the face of the maps ... Mead's contributions to cartography stand out ... At a time when the quality and the ethics of map production were at a low ebb in England, he vigorously urged and practiced the highest standards; in the making of maps and navigational charts he was in advance of his time. For this he deserves due credit." (Cumming).

Crone, "John Green. Notes on a neglected Eighteenth Century Geographer and Cartographer," Imago Mundi, VI (1950) p. 89-91; Crone, "Further Notes on Braddock Mead, alias John Green..." Imago Mundi, VIII (1951) p. 69; Cumming, British Maps of Colonial America, pp.45-47; Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, 28538; Phillips, A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, 1196; Phillips, A List of Maps of America, p.109

#17856$60,000.00
 
 
MERCATOR, Michael (1565/70-1614)

[North & South America] America sive India Nova

Amsterdam: Hondius, [1613]. Copper-engraved map, with full original colour, in very good condition. Sheet size: 17 1/4 x 20 7/8 inches.

A superb example of one of the most celebrated maps of the Americas

Officially made by Gerard's grandson Michael to help complete the Atlas begun by Gerard in 1584, the map is based on the America portion of Rumold Mercator's world map of 1587. Michael Mercator's most significant contribution is the outstanding beauty of the map. Few previous maps, Mercator's included, have the pure visual appeal of this map with its symmetrical configuration of circular insets and Mannerist flow of vines, flowers and leaves.

Geographically, the map sums up 16th-century knowledge, theories and suppositions regarding the New World. A great deal of knowledge had been accumulated in the century since Columbus unknowingly found the Caribbean Islands. Naturally, most of this new knowledge was coastal, and configurations of any large areas were greatly hampered by the lack of a sound means of determining longitude. Nevertheless, the collective accomplishment of explorers and mapmakers represented in this map is astounding, showing in a generally correct way the vast extent of the "New World." This huge geographical revelation was a shock to basic assumptions of Western civilization comparable to the discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe.

Burden, The Mapping of North America I, 87; Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, Me 22; Goss, The Mapping of North America, 19.

#5858$8,500.00
 
 
MOLL, Herman (1654-1732)

[Central & South America] A New & Exact Map of the Coast, Countries and Islands within ye Limits of ye South Sea Company

London: H. Moll, T. & J. Bowles, P. Overton & J. King, [circa 1730]. Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour, in excellent condition. Sheet size: 29 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches.

A fascinating and historically important map relating to the infamous "South Sea Bubble" and English piracy on the Spanish Main

This fascinating map represents the synergy of one of the most sensational economic phenomena in British history and the intrigue surrounding the designs of London-based pirate adventurers. In 1711, as Britain was gaining the upper hand over Spain in Queen Anne's War (1702-14), the Lord Treasurer, Robert Hartley granted exclusive trading rights to commerce with Spanish America to a society of investors known as the South Sea Company. While some of the Company's members were actual corsairs who wished to attack Spanish galleons, by 1713 the Company was given official legitimacy as it was granted a privilege by Madrid to send one trading vessel a year to the region in question, in addition to being granted some involvement in the 'Asiento,' the African slave trade. While the Company did not actually make its first trading voyage until 1717, and even then only made a modest profit, wild speculation consumed London as thousands of investors came to believe that the Company promised to deliver astronomical riches in Andean silver and gold and slave sales. The Company's association with respected politicians and merchants added justification to the ebullient media campaign launched on numerous broadsides. The Exchequer loaned the Company over £11.7 million in public funds (an outrageous sum) and by August, 1720 individual shares reached a staggering high of £1,000. Described as "a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody knows what it is," the share price began to rapidly plummet all the way down to a low of £100 per share once a few commentators began to ask the obvious question. The so-called "South Sea Bubble" had burst, leaving both the Exchequer and numerous investors with massive debts, based on loans leveraged against the share price while it was at a high. As we know today, it was not the first, and by no means the last occasion that the public had been swept up in such irrational exuberance. After its near collapse the Company managed to reconstitute itself, and it continued to maintain a limited trade with the Spanish Main until the 1760s, and from then until 1850 it served as debt management agency for the Exchequer.

The main section of this magnificent map embraces all of South America, the West Indies and the southern portions of North America, including Florida and California (which is assumed to be an island). Spanish America is shown divided into its numerous captaincies and all aspects of the coastlines are labelled in great detail. A dotted line located far out into the ocean denotes "The Sea Limit" of the Company's exclusive operational space. The detailed lines of ocean currents are derived from Edmond Halley's revolutionary hydrological world map. This principal map is accompanied by nine exquisitely engraved cartographic insets detailing harbours and islands, which might be especially important to any aspiring corsair who may wish to stalk Spanish treasure fleets in the region. These sites include Acapulco, the Gulf of Fonseca, the Galapagos Islands, Juan Fernando Island, the Panamanian Isthmus, the Straits of Magellan, Pepys's Island and a general overview of the trans-Atlantic Passage from England. Above the main section, are three large and highly detailed inset maps of the important harbours of Chiloe, Valdivia (both in Chile) and Guyaquil (Ecuador). As suggested in the very lower part of the map, in addition to Halley, Moll based most of his geography on the works of the Parisian royal cartographer Guillaume De L'Isle.

The present map was part of Herman Moll's magnificent folio work, a New and Compleat Atlas. Moll was the most important cartographer working in London during his era, a career that spanned over fifty years. His origins have been a source of great scholarly debate; however, the prevailing opinion suggests that he hailed from the Hanseatic port city of Bremen, Germany. Joining a number of his countrymen, he fled the turmoil of the Scanian Wars for London, and in 1678 is first recorded as working there as an engraver for Moses Pitt on the production of the English Atlas. It was not long before Moll found himself as a charter member of London's most interesting social circle, which congregated at Jonathan's Coffee House at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. It was at this establishment that speculators met to trade equities (most notoriously South Sea Company shares). Moll's coffeehouse circle included the scientist Robert Hooke, the archaeologist William Stuckley, the authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and the intellectually-gifted pirates William Dampier, Woodes Rogers and William Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in the works of these same figures. Moll was highly astute, both politically and commercially, and he was consistently able to craft maps and atlases that appealed to the particular fancy of wealthy individual patrons, as well as the popular trends of the day. In many cases, his works are amongst the very finest maps of their subjects ever created with toponymy in the English language.

Shirley, Maps in the Atlases of the British Library I, T.Moll-4b, 12; Cf. Hutchinson, 'Herman Moll's view of the South Sea Company,' Journal for Maritime Research, 2003; Reinhartz, The Cartographer and the Literati: Herman Moll and his Intellectual Circle

#17932$2,750.00
 
 
MOLL, Hermann (1654-1732)

A Map of the West-Indies or the Islands of America in the North Sea...

[London]: Moll, n.d., c. 1720. Copper-engraved map with period outline colour. Browning at edges and at fold. Image size (including text): 23 x 39 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 25 1/4 x 40 5/8 inches.

Moll's Map of the Spanish Main

This very intriguing Moll map of the West Indies undoubtedly owes a good deal to his friendship with a number of prominent English privateers, most notably William Dampier and Woodes Rogers. (Moll contributed world maps to works written by both men). The map is full of observations that derive from an intense interest in the various routes of the annual Spanish flotilla that, beginning in the 1520s, conveyed silver, gold, gems, spices, and wood from the New World to Spain. According to Moll's map, the convoy sailed into the Gulf south of Granada to Cartagena where they picked up mostly silver from South America: primarily Potosi until 1626, and Peru. From there they might sail directly to Havana, or to Porto Bello in Darien (Panama) where materials that had been transported across the Pacific from the Philippines would await them. From there to Vera Cruz to collect exports from Mexico and then on to Havana. The whole flotilla, again following Moll's "tracts", sailed northeast from Havana, then north through the Bahama Channel to St. Augustine, then east to Spain. Needless to say, the pirates were located near the latter stages of the procession, many in the Bahamas. As time went on, piratical ventures organized and began to assault wealthy port towns, in addition to the ships anchored in their harbors, and Moll provides inset charts of St. Augustine, Havana, Porto Bello, Vera Cruz and Cartagena in the upper right. There is also a handsome engraved view of Mexico City with an index keyed to 15 sites.

The present map was part of Herman Moll's magnificent folio work, a New and Compleat Atlas. Moll was the most important cartographer working in London during his era, a career that spanned over fifty years. His origins have been a source of great scholarly debate; however, the prevailing opinion suggests that he hailed from the Hanseatic port city of Bremen, Germany. Joining a number of his countrymen, he fled the turmoil of the Scanian Wars for London, and in 1678 is first recorded as working there as an engraver for Moses Pitt on the production of the English Atlas. It was not long before Moll found himself as a charter member of London's most interesting social circle, which congregated at Jonathan's Coffee House at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. It was at this establishment that speculators met to trade equities (most notoriously South Sea Company shares). Moll's coffeehouse circle included the scientist Robert Hooke, the archaeologist William Stuckley, the authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and the intellectually-gifted pirates William Dampier, Woodes Rogers and William Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in the works of these same figures. Moll was highly astute, both politically and commercially, and he was consistently able to craft maps and atlases that appealed to the particular fancy of wealthy individual patrons, as well as the popular trends of the day. In many cases, his works are amongst the very finest maps of their subjects ever created with toponymy in the English language.

#20626$6,000.00
 
 
MÜNSTER, Sebastian (1488-1552)

[Americas & Western Hemisphere] Novae Insulae XVII Nova Tabula

[Basel: Heinrich Petri in the 'Geographia Universalis', 1542]. Woodcut map, in excellent condition. Sheet size: 11 3/4 x 15 1/8 inches.

A very rare first-state example of Münster's highly-important map of the New World, from the second edition of his celebrated 'Geographia Universalis,' and an iconic masterpiece of Renaissance cartography

This map, Novae Insule XVII, Nova Tabula, which is of great epistemological importance, depicts the immense lands newly discovered in the Western Hemisphere during the preceding two generations. Sebastian Münster's use of the term "Americam" on the map, in addition to the hemisphere's designation as the "Novus Orbis" (New World), helped to solidify America as the name for the New World. This is also the earliest printed map to use the name "Mare Pacificum" for the Pacific Ocean, first discovered by Balboa in 1513. South America is much more clearly defined and accurately drawn than North America, as it was the object of greater European exploration. The Portuguese flag is shown flying over the South Atlantic and the Spanish banner flies over her possessions in the Caribbean, alluding to the papal Edict of Tordesillas (1494), which divided the world between the two Iberian powers. The Straits of Magellan are named and Magellan's ship, Victoria, is shown in the Pacific Ocean. A woodcut of a pyre with a leg hanging from a tree limb identifies the region where "Canibali" live in the eastern bulge of South America, now known as Brazil, in light of the vivid tales of Amerigo Vespucci. The area now encompassed by Argentina is called "Regio Gigantum" in honor of the gargantuan Patagonians that Magellan's men reported meeting there. Several islands are shown in the Caribbean, including Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica, while the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is also shown as an island. The only place named in what is now the United States is "Terra Florida," having been discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513. The French territories in Canada, "Francisca," discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1534, is shown lying far to the east of the rest of North America. Münster showed North America narrowing into a slender isthmus in the area of modern North Carolina. This was due to Giovanni di Verrazzano's mis-identification of the Outer Banks of North Carolina as "Oriental Sea" that led to Cathay and the Spice Islands, and this led to greater interest in the exploration of the Atlantic Coast of North America. "Zipangri" (Japan) is located in the middle of the Pacific amidst 7,446 islands following the tales of Marco Polo.

Münster was a brilliant polymath and one of the most important intellectuals of the Renaissance era. Educated at Tübingen, his surviving college notebooks, Kollegienbuch, reveal a mind of insatiable curiosity, especially with regards to cosmography. Münster later became a professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg, and then from 1529 at the University of Basel. In the 1530s, he turned his attentions to translating Ptolemy's Geography, adding new material that related to the lands newly discovered in the Americas and Asia. The result was the publication of his highly regarded Geographia Universalis, first printed in 1540, of which the present map of the New World was by far its most celebrated component. The present map is from the second edition, but still represents the first-state of the map, as the same unaltered woodblock from the initial printing was employed in the production of the second edition. Münster was also a trend-setter in his ideas regarding design and layout of maps, and he was one of the first to create space on his woodblocks for the insertion of place names in metal type. Münster later published his Cosmographia (1544, revised 1550), a monumental encyclopedic book of contemporary knowledge and legend that became one of the most widely read books in Europe.

Burden, Mapping of North America I, 12 (Latin text, state 1): Kershaw, Early Printed Maps of Canada I, 1b; Suárez, Shedding the Veil, pp.81-85. pl.16. Cf. Schwartz & Ehrenberg, Mapping of America, p.45, pl.18; Cf. Skelton, Decorative Printed Maps, p.40; Suárez, Early Mapping of the Pacific, p.49; Tooley, Mapping & Mapmakers, p.112, pl.80.

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