Catalog Archive
Auction 138, Lot 794

"Diu in Arabia", Meisner, Daniel

Subject: India

Period: 1638 (published)

Publication: Sciographia Cosmica

Color: Hand Color

Size:
6 x 4 inches
15.2 x 10.2 cm
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This charming view shows the Portuguese colony of Diu, which was located on an island at the entrance to the Gulf of Cambay in the Indian Ocean. The miniature view is based on Braun & Hogenberg's view. The Latin phrase above, Stat sua cuique dies (There is a day [turn] for everybody) refers to the tiny island's importance to European-Asian trade in the sixteenth century.

Meisner's emblem book, containing over 800 pictorial-poetic compositions, was enormously popular throughout Europe in the 17th century. The plan views were based on the work of De Bry, Braun & Hogenberg, Merian and others with the addition of emblematic figures or scenes in the foreground, juxtaposed with moralizing and edifying verses beneath the image and a Latin motto at top. It was originally issued with 52 plates as the Thesaurus philo-politicus in 1623-24. After Meisner's death in 1625, Eberhard Kieser, with assistance from Johann L. Gottfried, completed the work and published it until 1631. The plates then appeared in the eight parts of Sciographia Cosmica published by Paulus Furst between 1637-78. The plates for these editions were renumbered alphanumerically in the upper right corners - A-H (identifying the 8 parts) and 1-100 (plate number). They were finally issued in 1700 and 1704 in Rudolf J. Helmer's Politica-politica.

References:

Condition: A

Light soiling in blank margins, far from map image.

Estimate: $120 - $160

Sold for: $90

Closed on 12/7/2011

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