"America Noviter Delineata", Picart, Nicolas

This exquisitely engraved carte-a-figures map is Picart's very rare, separately published version of Jodocus Hondius' 1618 map of the same name. Here Picart has copied Jansson's 1623 edition without the lower border. Unlike Blaeu's map of 1617, the views above the map include towns in North America as well as South America, including St. Augustine, Carolina, and Pomeiooc, after John Smith's depiction of this native village on the Carolina coast. The panels flanking the map show natives of Greenland, Virginia, Florida, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Chili. North America retains the peninsular California and the East Coast is beginning to take shape, although it still lacks detail in the mid-Atlantic region. In the Southwest the famous seven cities of Cibola appear on the banks of a large lake. In South America, the mythical Parime Lacus is evident on the Equator, and a large inland sea is noted as the headwater of the La Plata and the R. Real. The interior features two minutely engraved scenes of natives; one depicting the giants that were said to live near Patagonia. Two stylized insets of the north and south polar regions are enclosed in strapwork cartouches. The North Pole depicts Frobisher's theory of the Northwest Passage and the South Pole furthers the long-held notion of the mythical southern continent. The map is richly ornamented with a strapwork title cartouche accented by a skull, terrific ships and sea monsters.

References: Burden #265; Tooley (America) pp. 298.

Condition: B+

A superb impression on a sound, clean sheet with just a couple of minor spots. The centerfold has been reinforced on the verso and a short tear just into the border at top has been repaired with tissue on the verso.