Subject: Western Hemisphere - America
Period: 1687 (dated)
Publication:
Color: Hand Color
Size:
11.4 x 11.6 inches
29 x 29.5 cm
This rare map of the Western Hemisphere was engraved by Heinrich Irsinger, an obscure German engraver from Ulm. California as an island is featured with the coastline of Anian to the northeast of the island. In the South Pacific, New Zealand's western coastline is depicted as well as a group of Polynesian islands. In South America, the mythical Lago de los Xarayes is shown at the center of the continent. The sheet is decorated with evocative, somewhat naïve figures representing the natives of continents. According to Shirley these maps appeared in Happel's Mundus Mirabilis (1687) and Historia Moderna Europae (1692) and may have been included in other works published by Matthaeus Wagner.
References: Shirley (Corrigenda and Addenda) #535A; Shirley (Map Collector #64) p. 4.
Condition: B+
Issued folding, now pressed, on watermarked paper with some printer's ink residue and a few tiny holes along the folds that have been professionally repaired. A binding trim at top left has been replaced, and an associated 1" binding tear has been professionally repaired. The top margin has been extended a bit to accommodate framing.