Subject: Crete
Period: 1636 (circa)
Publication: Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes...
Color: Hand Color
Size:
10 x 7.4 inches
25.4 x 18.8 cm
This handsome map of the island of Crete depicts towns, villages, rivers and the topography of the island. It is very decorative, with a moire-patterned sea and an elegant title cartouche that incorporates a distance scale. Masterfully engraved by Petrus Kaerius for Cloppenburgh's atlas, which was a medium-sized atlas - in between the folio and Atlas Minor sizes - based on Mercator's maps. Unlike maps of the region from Mercator, this focuses exclusively on Crete, with no smaller maps of the Aegean Islands. This is the first state with French text on verso, published between 1630-1636.
References: Van der Krogt (Vol. III) #7900:353.1.
Condition: B+
A nice impression on a lightly toned sheet of watermarked paper with an archivally repaired hole adjacent to the title cartouche and a short edge tear confined to the bottom blank margin.