Montanus' work was perhaps the greatest illustrated book on the New World produced in the seventeenth century. It contained over one hundred beautifully engraved plates, views, and maps of North and South America. The plates vividly depict forts, festivals, occupations, Dutch fleets, battles, religious rites, and customs of the native inhabitants. This important work was translated into German by Olivier Dapper, and into English by John Ogilby. Several of the plates were later acquired by Pierre Vander Aa.

Copper engraving of the Dutch fort at Porto Calvo in Alagoas, Brazil. Porto Calvo was a strategic port that changed hands several times between the Dutch and Portuguese during the early colonization of Brazil. The foreground is filled with people, carts, and farmers. Embellished with a banner-style title cartouche.

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Condition: A

A nice impression on a bright sheet with a Strasbourg Lily watermark, a tiny rust spot at right, and a small hole in an unengraved area of the image at right that has been professionally infilled. There are minor archival repairs in the bottom blank margin and faint dampstains in the top blank margin.