PBA Galleries

Volume 4, North America. With half-title and  title page, 2 index maps, and 77 double-page lithographed maps (numbered 1-76, with 57 bis), most with some hand-coloring in outline. 53x5x35 cm (21x13¾"), period leather-backed boards.

The sought-after fourth volume (of six) of Vandermaelen's extraordinary atlas, covering the whole world in a uniform large scale. The volume covers North America, from the frozen north of Alaska, Canada and Greenland to the tropical lands of the isthmus and the West Indies. The Princeton University website describes the copy of the whole atlas they acquired in 2009, as "consisting of approximately 380 conically projected sheets of maps and 40 pages of statistical tables in six volumes. This folio-size atlas is remarkable for several reasons. It is the first atlas produced by the then new printing process of lithography. It is also the first atlas to show the whole world in maps using a large uniform scale—about 26 miles to the inch. Moreover, the maps are designed to be joined into a three-dimensional terrestrial globe with a diameter of approximately 7.75 meters (almost 25 feet)."

Provenance: Arkway, 3/84

References: P-LG 749. Gilbert de Cauwer in IM 24. Woodward, 5 Centuries of Map Printing, Chapter 4. Wellens-De Donder, Phillpe Vandermaelen 1795-1869.