Catalog Archive
Auction 100, Lot 18

"[Lot of 2]", Burnet, Thomas

Subject: World

Period: 1689 (circa)

Publication: The Sacred Theory of the Earth

Color: Hand Color

Size:
7.3 x 7.3 inches
18.5 x 18.5 cm
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Very uncommon pair of early thematic maps. In the Western Hemisphere, California is shown as an island and there is a single large lake in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. The continents are shown in outline with accentuated chains of mountains and no place names. Numerous islands are shown throughout the oceans denoting hypothetical lands that existed before the Flood. Thomas Burnet was the first Englishman to attempt a scientific account of the origin of the earth. His popular and controversial treatise focused upon the breaking up of "the fountains of the great deep" as the cause of the flood, as described in Genesis 7:11, and it presented a model of the earth's structure with ample stores of water within subterranean chambers. Each hemisphere is on a separate sheet with book, figure and page numbers in the top margins.

References: Shirley #507; McLaughlin #77.

Condition: B

Backed with Japanese tissue filling in a slight bit of loss in the Eastern Hemisphere. Binding trims filled with Japanese tissue. Some soil in margins, barely affecting the bottom of the Eastern Hemisphere.

Estimate: $700 - $800

Sold for: $900

Closed on 9/12/2002

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