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Novus orbis, seu descriptionis Indiae occidentalis

Lot 14
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 16 380
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1119219
Lot 14 | Novus orbis, seu descriptionis Indiae occidentalis
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
Novus orbis, seu descriptionis Indiae occidentalis

Johannes de Laet, 1633

LAET, Johannes de (1593-1649). Novus orbis, seu descriptionis Indiae occidentalis. Leiden: Elzevir, 1633.



First edition in Latin of "arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" (Burden). George Bancroft's copy. The author was a noted geographer and a director of the Dutch West India Company. This expanded edition contains 14 maps in total (up from only 10 in the first Dutch edition), all by Hessel Gerritsz, who had trained under Willem Blaeu and was appointed the first exclusive cartographer to the WIC. His "Nova Anglia" map, showing the coast and inland areas from Nova Scotia to North Carolina, is the first printed map to mention the name Manhattan, here spelled Manbattes. "It is also the earliest to use the Dutch names of Noordt Rivier and Zuyd Rivier, for the Hudson and Delaware Rivers respectively, as well as the Indian Massachusets, for the new English colony ... [the Nova Francia map] is one of the foundation maps of Canada" (ibid).



Many of the maps served as prototypes for later Dutch maps of the region. In addition, this work contains many woodcut illustrations of American flora and fauna, making it "one of the most famous contemporary descriptions of the natural history of the New World. The work was highly praised a century later by Charlevoix, attesting to its accuracy" (Streeter). Borba de Moraes p. 451; Burden 229-232; Sabin 38557; Streeter sale 37.



Folio (343 x 213mm). Half-title, title in engraved architectural border, 14 double-page maps by Hessel Gerritsz, numerous woodcut illustrations of plants, animals and inhabitants of the New World in text (some intermittent browning and spotting; a few small dampmarks). Contemporary calf gilt (rebacked). Provenance: French armorial bookplate with a collar of the Order of the Holy Spirit – George Bancroft, 1800-1891, American historian and politician (bookplate).

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