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Item Details
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| Heading: |
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| Author: |
Ortelius, Abraham |
| Title: |
Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio |
| Place: |
Antwerp |
| Publisher: |
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| Date: |
1570-[1573] |
| Item # : |
163665 |
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| Sale Number |
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321 |
| Lot Number |
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126 |
| Sale Name |
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| The Cartography of California, 16th-19th Centuries: Maps from a Private Collection |
| Sale Date |
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11/17/2005 |
| Price realized |
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$ 4600 |
| (Includes 20% Buyer's Premium) |
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| Description: |
| Copper-engraved map, hand-colored. 36.5x51.5 cm. (14½x20¼"). |
| Landmark map of the Americas, one of the most widely disseminated of its time, of great influence, the product of one of the leading mapmakers of his or any era. Burden calls it "One of the most famous and easily recognizable maps of America, and one that is both functional as well as decorative." Its great influence was due to a large extent to its presence in Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first atlas produced that uniformly covered the world with similarly sized and styled maps. Published on May 20, 1570, it was instantly successful, and went through four issues in the first year alone. Burden goes on to note that “Ortelius depicts the discoveries of a number of people on this map, but the general shape of the continent is derived from Gerard Mercator’s great twenty-one sheet world map of the previous year… One of the main noticeable features of the map is the bulbous Chilean coastline; this was not corrected until his third plate [produced in 1587]. A strategically placed cartouche hides a complete lack of knowledge of the southern waters of the Pacific… The west coast of North America is shown too far west, as was common at the time…” There were three copper plates made over the life of the atlas for the American map. The present map is from the first plate, issued in 1570, with the strapwork border 7 mm. thick and the largest ship in the Pacific sailing westwards. It is the second state, with the Azores correctly labeled; the first state of the map, which is very scarce, having been contained only in the first issue of the 1570 edition, called them Canarie insule. The third state of the first plate, issued in 1575, was reworked to repair a few cracks, causing the longitude number 230 at the top to be erased. The present map is from either the 1573 or 1574 printing, with the second line of the Latin text on verso beginning “uus orbis…” Burden 39; Goss p.34. |
| Condition: |
| Neat repairs at centerfold and lower left corner, a bit of soiling (mostly marginal), still near fine, bright, seldom found in better condition. |
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