Catalog Archive
Auction 134, Lot 21

"Orbis Terrarum Typus de Integro in Plurimis Emendatus, Auctus, et Icunculis Illustratus", Visscher, Nicolas

Subject: World

Period: 1657 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Hand Color

Size:
18.6 x 12.2 inches
47.2 x 31 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

An exquisitely decorated double hemisphere world map, surrounded by engravings including allegorical representations of the continents as well as native inhabitants and wildlife. This is Visscher's first world map to be included in Dutch Bibles. It was so popular that the surrounding decorations were copied by several other cartographers. Two celestial spheres are displayed in the Eastern Hemisphere. In the lower part of the Western Hemisphere text describes the discovery of America and recent voyages of discovery. Two diagrams depicting the Ptolemaic and Copernican theories of the solar system are tucked between the hemispheres. The northwest coast of North America is exaggerated and shows California correctly as a peninsula. Parts of Australia and Van Diemen's Land are shown but the north and east coasts of Australia are not depicted. Dutch text on verso.

References: Shirley #401; Poortman & Augusteijn #83.

Condition: B+

Sharp impression with a professionally repaired tear in the bottom right corner. Professionally remargined with a tiny bit of the neatline in facsimile at lower right.

Estimate: $2,000 - $2,400

Sold for: $1,500

Closed on 12/1/2010

Archived