NO RESERVE

"[Lot of 3] Leodiensis Dioec. [and] Limburgensis Ducatus Nova Descriptio Auct. Aegidio Mart [and] Namurcum Comitatus", Mercator/Hondius

This matching set of maps comes from the English edition of Mercator's Atlas Minor, which was published under the title Historia Mundi or Mercators Atlas by Michael Spark and Samuel Cartwright. After acquiring the plates to the 1607 edition of the Mercator/Hondius Atlas Minor, Sparke republished the maps with text translated into English by Wye Saltonstall. Sparke also had 41 additional maps engraved for the Historia Mundi. Most of these maps were copied from Cloppenburg's edition of Atlas Minor and are therefore a bit larger, with some signed by the engravers Jacob van Langren and Ralph Hall. These additional maps only appeared in the 1635, 1637 and 1639 editions of the Historia Mundi and are therefore quite scarce. Included in this lot are three maps of the Low Countries, including two of the newly engraved maps. Each map is adorned with a decorative title cartouche and a distance scale. English text on verso. Sizes vary slightly.

A. Leodiensis Dioec. Map of the Meuse River valley, centered roughly on Liege with east oriented at the top.
B. Limburgensis Ducatus Nova Descriptio Auct. Aegidio Mart. Follows a portion of the Meuse River near the intersection of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
C. Namurcum Comitatus. Centered on Namur.

References: Van der Krogt (Vol. III) #3170:351 (Sparke), #3340:351 (Sparke), #3360:351.

Condition: A

Nice impressions with light toning along the edges of the sheets and some small chips and tears also along the edges. The map of Namurcum has a few small rust spots and some loss of the border at top left due to the plate not being centered properly on the sheet during the printing process.