The first issue of this 16th century miniature map of Sumatra

WRIGHT, Benjamin.

Sumatra Insula.
Amsterdam, Cornelis Claez, 1599, Dutch text edition. 85 x 125mm, with letterpress surtitle and pagination.

A scarce map of Sumatra and the nearby islands, one of four new maps engraved by Benjamin Wright for this second edition of the 'Caert-Thresoor', with a text by an unknown author. Orientated with north to the left, it also shows the tip of the Malay Peninsula, with Singapore marked as 'Sincapura'.
Wright, who was born in London c. 1575, worked in Amsterdam between 1599 and 1611 before moving to Italy, engraving for Magini in Bologna. The last records of Wright are his letters of 1612-3, in which he admits to pawning copperplates he was working on for a client.
By 1600 this map was being published in the 'Tabularum Geographicarum' with a text by Petrus Bertius, and in 1616 a new plate was engraved by Jodocus Hondius II, slightly larger and with wider borders with scales of longitude and latitude.


Stock ID : 21281