Subject: Northern Italy
Period: 1635 (published)
Publication: Historia Mundi or Mercators Atlas...
Color: Hand Color
Size:
7.1 x 5.6 inches
18 x 14.2 cm
This matching set of maps comes from the English edition of Mercator's Atlas Minor, which was published under the title Historia Mundi or Mercators Atlas by Michael Spark and Samuel Cartwright. After acquiring the plates to the 1607 edition of the Mercator/Hondius Atlas Minor, Sparke republished the maps with text translated into English by Wye Saltonstall. Sparke also had 41 additional maps engraved for the Historia Mundi. Most of these maps were copied from Cloppenburg's edition of Atlas Minor and are therefore a bit larger, with some signed by the engravers Jacob van Langren and Ralph Hall. These additional maps only appeared in the 1635, 1637 and 1639 editions of the Historia Mundi and are therefore quite scarce. Included in this lot are four regional maps of northern Italy, representing the complete set of "tables of Lombardy" in Atlas Minor, including one of the newly engraved maps. Each map is adorned with a decorative title cartouche and a distance scale. English text on verso. Sizes vary slightly.
A. Lombardiae Alpestris pars Occidentalis cu Valesia
B. Tarvisina Marchia et Tirolis Comitatus
C. Pedemontana Regio cum Genvensium Territorio Montisfernati Marchionatu
D. Romandiola cum D. Parmensi
References: Van der Krogt (Vol. III) #7011:351, #7012:351, #7050:351 (Sparke), #7014:351.
Condition: A
Nice impressions with light toning along the edges of the sheets and some small chips and tears also along the edges. The first sheet has a tear in the top blank margin that has been closed on verso with archival tape.