ATLASES 

HONTER, Johannes.
[A scarce miniature atlas by Honter]
Rudimentorum Cosmographicorum Honteri Coronensis Libri III. Cum Tabellis Geographicus Elegantissimus. Zurich: C.Froshauer, 1549. Later binding, book size: 155 x 98mm.
A very early, attractive and scarce miniature atlas, notable amongst its maps is a double page cordiform world first published in 1546, which was highly influential at the time in having the most recent discoveries included in it, such as the Americas and the Spice Islands in the Far East. The list of diagrams and maps in this volume are as follows: 1) Circuli Sphaeri Cum V. Zonis 2) Ordo Planetarum Cum Aspectibus. 3) Regiones Et Nomina Ventorum. 4) Universalis Cosmographia 5) Hispania 6) Gallia 7) Germania 8) Major/Minor Polonia 9) Dacia 10) Greece 11) Italy 12) Cyprus/Holy Land 13) Asia Minor 14) Arabia/Caspian Sea/India 15) Africa 16) Sicilia See SHIRLEY: World 108 for the Cordiform world.
[Ref: 7978]  

MUNSTER, Sebastian.
[First Latin Edition of Munster's 'Cosmographia']
Cosmographiae universalis Lib. VI in quibis, iuxta certioris fidei scriptorum.. Basle, Henri Petri, 1550, Latin text edition. Folio, contemporary full vellum binding, rebacked. Woodcut title, portrait, 14 double-page maps, including two world maps and one map of America, 37 town views, 3 folding panormas, and 3 other double-page woodcuts. Plethora of woodcut illustrations throughout text.
A beautiful and complete example of what was undoubtedly the most popular cosmographical text of the mid sixteenth century. The famous map of The Americas (Burden 12) is here in state 5, and the modern world map in its second block,with the monograms DK, i.e. David Kendall. Sebastian Munster was raised as a Franciscan monk, converted to Lutheranism, taught Hebrew at Heidelberg and Basle, and was proficient in Greek and some Asian tongues. This work was an outgrowth of Munster edition of Ptolemy's Geography, whose Latin translation was based on that by Willibald Pirkheimer, though in a prelude to the present work's originality, he did not merely copy that rendering. He “carefully collated it with previous editions, added numerous notes of his own, and produced new maps to supplement the Ptolemaic maps(Karrow). SHIRLEY: Maps in the Atlases in the British Library, T.Mun-1c.
[Ref: 8594]  

BRAUN, Georg & HOGENBERG, Frans.
[A Very Fine Set of the "Civitates Orbis Terrarum"]
Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Cologne, 1574-1618, French Edition, six volumes bound in three, folio, full contemporary vellum (size each 430 x 310mm)
A complete set of all 6 volumes, bound in three volumes in original vellum bindings. Each book has its own engraved frontispiece and there are 363 city views in total. The "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" is the earliest systematic city atlas and employed such luminaries as Abraham Ortelius who provided much of its material, Pieter Breughel who contributed to many of the plans of Holland and Flanders and Joris Hoefnagel who supplied the drawings after which the cityscapes were engraved by Simon Novellanus. It was mostly published in Latin, being aimed at an educated urban aristocracy, so the present French edition is an uncommon find. The Civitates was an enormous undertaking at the time so it is not surprising that it was published over a period from 1572-1598 with a gap of twenty years until the sixth volume was added in 1618. Koeman Page 10.
[Ref: 7349]  

ORTELIUS, Abraham.
[An Association Copy of Ortelius' Theatrum]
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Antwerp: Gillis van den Rade, 1575. Folio, contemporary full calf gilt rebacked, bookplate on front pastedown; engraved titlepage in original colour with gold highlights including a mss presentation inscription from Anthony Bacon; pp. (xix), 70 maps, as called for, in original hand colour, five maps with minor repairs to either centrefold or margin.
A fine example of the first regularly produced atlas, as well as an important association copy, with a gilt mss presentation inscription from Anthony Bacon to "B. Turræo Italo DDD". Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), foster-brother of Francis Bacon and nephew of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, worked as a spy for both Burghley and Walsingham (Elizabeth I's spy-master), gathering intelligence in France and Geneva 1579-1581, before being sent by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, to undertake 'certain business for the queen' in Bordeaux. The ODNB describes Bacon's talents as being 'fully recognised by those players engaged in the complex negotiations of English and European politics during the last two decades of the sixteenth century'. 'Turræo' (Turraeus or della Torre?) cannot be identified with any certainty, but he must have been an extremely important contact to be presented with such an extremely expensive gift. The bookplate is that of Bob Luza (1893-1980), an Amsterdam doctor and holocaust survivor, whose collection was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1981. This was the only atlas in his collection. Koeman: Ort 13.
[Ref: 11185]  

ORTELIUS, Abraham.
[The World's First Regularly Produced Atlas]
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum... Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1584, Latin edition. Folio, contemporary blind-stamped vellum & title label, worn; engr. title, portrait of Ortelius, 110 maps, as called for.
A fine example of this important atlas. First published in 1570, Ortelius' 'Theatrum' was the first regularly produced atlas, and the first attempt to compile the best available maps in a uniform format. The first edition contained 53 maps, but over the years more maps were engraved, and this edition contains over twice as many. For further details please contact us. Koeman: Ort 21.
[Ref: 4159]  

PTOLEMY, Claudius.
[Mercator's edition of Ptolemy's Geography]
Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini, Geographiae Libri Octo, recogniti iam et diligenter emendati cum talulis geographicis ad mentem auctoris restitutis ac emendatis per Gerardum Mercatorem... Cleves, 1584. Folio, recased in contemporary limp vellum, pp. (ii) + 108 (numbered to 106 then 89 & 90, but correct) + (40), 28 maps, all but one double-page with text on reverse.
Gerard Mercator's edition of Ptolemy's Geography, a treatise on cartography and a description of the world's geography as known in the Roman Empire of the 2nd century. Lost to the West during the Dark Ages, Ptolemy's text was discovered in Constantinople in 1295, however lacking maps (as these needed more skill to copy). Thus the first printed edition (Bologna, 1477) contained maps derived from the coordinates in the text. For his edition Mercator chose also to start from scratch, trusting that his own expertise would make his maps the most faithful to Ptolemy's original work. The atlas was first published in 1578; this second edition was the last in Mercator's lifetime. However there were further editions, with the plates much altered, as late as 1730. KOEMAN: Me 2.
[Ref: 12130]  

ORTELIUS, Abraham.
[Ortelius's atlas in fine original colour]
Theatro D'El Orbe De La Tierra de Abraham Ortello. El Qual Antes El Estremo Dia De Su Vida Por La Postrera Vez Ha Emendado, Y Con Nuevas Tablas Y Commentarios Augmentado Y Esclarecido. Antwerp, Jan Baptist Vrients, 1602, Spanish edition. Folio, later full red morocco binding, new endpapers; engraved titlepage with arms of Philip of Austria, King of Spain, on verso, portrait of Ortelius with ownership label; pp. (xiii), 118 maps on 117 sheets as called for (nos 34 & 35 on one sheet), plus an extra plate, all in full hand original colour, some with gold highlights.
A Vrients edition of this important atlas, in the beautiful original colour that Vrients editions are famous for. The portrait of Ortelius has the ownership label of Vicente Juan de Lastanosa (1607-84), a Spanish writer and scholar. The extra plate is the view of the Escorial normally published in Ortelius's Parergon, this example with Latin text on the reverse. First published in 1570, Ortelius's 'Theatrum' was the first regularly produced atlas, and the first attempt to compile the best available maps in a uniform format. The first edition contained 53 maps, but over the years more maps were engraved, and this rare Spanish edition contains over twice as many, including the famous maps of Iceland (1585), the Pacific Ocean (1589), China (1584) and Japan (1595). There are numerous maps of America in this volume which provide a fascinating insight into the colonial expansion of the time, especially that of Spain, with "Terra Corterealis" commemorating the explorations of Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real in 1500-01. The maps of the Far East are also of great cartographical interest, Tooley comments thus about the maps of China and Japan "An important map of China, the first to appear in a European atlas, was issued by Ortelius ... complied by Fr Ludovico Georgio, a Portuguese Jesuit, this map remained the standard type for the interior of China for over sixty years" and "The first separate map of Japan. This was compiled by Fr Ludovico Texeira and is important to the collector of Japanese maps as being the standard European map of Japan for many years". Over the course of publishing the "Theatrum", Ortelius made three separate plates for both the World and America maps: the present edition contains both in the third state, which are the first to mark the Solomon Islands. KOEMAN: Ort 34; TOOLEY "Maps & Mapmakers" P. 29.
[Ref: 10415]  

BRAUN, Georg & HOGENBERG, Frans.
[The 'earliest systematic city atlas']
Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Koln: 1572-1618. Six volumes, folio, C17th northern-European speckled sheep over pasteboard, expertly rebacked and cornered, original spines laid on, spines gilt in six compartments with raised bands; containing 6 engraved title-pages and 363 double-page plates of maps and views, all in full colour. With modern black morocco-backed cloth boxes, spines gilt.
A fine example of this monumental city atlas, produced as a companion to Ortelius's 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' atlas, with text by Georg Braun and plates engraved by Frans Hogenberg and others. The first volume was originally published in 1572, but these are a later printing, making a uniform set with the last Volume, number 6, which first appeared in 1617. The 363 plates are an impressive record of the notable towns of the period, mostly in Europe but also some in Asia and Africa, and even two in the New World, Mexico City and Cusco. The inclusion of dress and events in the foreground add extra local detail. KOEMAN: Vol 2, p 10: 'the earliest systematic city atlas'; TOOLEY: 'one of the great books of the World... a wonderful compendium of knowledge of life in Europe in the sixteenth century'.
[Ref: 12493]  

GHEYN, Jacob de.
[Signa Coelestia]
Arataea, sive Signa Coelestia: in quibus Astronomicae Speculationes Veterum ad Archetypa Vetustissimi Aratæorum Caesaris Germanici... Amsterdam, Jan Jansson, 1621, contemporary vellum,4to, without text as issued. 43 plates + general plate of the zodiac cut and pasted on to front paper.
The first thirty-nine numbered plates each depict a fleshed-out constellation in the form laid down by Caius Julius Hyginus in the first century BC; plate 40 shows the faces of the gods representing each of the five known planets; 41 the order of the Zodiac; 42 'Lacteus', the Milky Way; and 44 the faces of the Four Seasons. All but the general chart have the monogram IDG in the bottom left corner. Pasted on the first page are the northern and southern hemispheres with their respective constellations, an astrolabe and a windrose. The second edition of this delightful celestial atlas, which was first published 1600, influencing Bayer's 'Uranometria' three years later. De Gheyn (1565-1629), an artist and engraver, also produced a famous portrait of Tycho Brahe, but is better known for his 'Maniement d'Armes', an illustrated guide to the handling of pikes, muskets, etc. WARNER: Sky Explored, p.93, wrongly described as woodcuts.
[Ref: 8273]  

SCHILLER, Julius.
[Star Atlas]
CÅ“lum Stellatum Christianum... Augsburg, Andreas Apergerus, 1627. Oblong folio, contemporary vellum, soiled & scratched, lacking ties; engr. title, pp. (ii) + 132, lacking at least one page of tables at rear; one engr. plate listing Arabic names of the stars & 51 celestial charts.
Schiller, a lawyer not an astronomer, produced this star-atlas the year of his death. It was an attempt to replace the pagan symbolism of the constellations with Christian concepts: thus the twelve familiar signs of the Zodiac became the Twelve Apostles, and Cassiopeia became Mary Magdalene. It would be easy to dismiss the atlas as the work of a religious zealot: however it was a collaboration with Johann Bayer, updating Bayer's 'Uranometria' of 1603, improving the accuracy of the star positions. Bayer surveyed the stars, Schiller envisioned the constellations for Johann Mathias Kager to draw, and Lucas Kilian engraved the plates. Brahe & Kepler were lso on hand with advice. The result was the most accurate astronomical work available, influencing Cellarius to include two planispheres depicting the Christian constellations in his 'Harmonica Macrocosmica' in 1661. Provenance: ownership inscription of the Jesuit College of Ingolstadt, 1662; signature of L.A. Kunze on flyleaf; bookplate of Robert Honeyman IV. SNYDER: Maps of the Heavens, pp. 96-99, illus. (100-103 Cellarius' versions illus.) (STOTT: Celestial Charts pp. 76-71 Cellarius' versions illus.)
[Ref: 4599]