NO RESERVE

"[Lot of 2] Saxonia Inferior et Mekleburg [and] Monasteriensis Episcopatus", Mercator/Hondius

This matching pair 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 two maps of northern Germany, including one 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. Saxonia Inferior et Mekleburg. Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg are the central theme of this appealing map. It covers from Lubeck and the Baltic Sea in the north to Celle, Rathenow and Spandau in the south.

B. Monasteriensis Episcopatus. Oriented with north to the right, the map extends from Dollart Bay to Dummer Lake, and as far south as Munster.

References: Van der Krogt (Vol. III) #2200:351, #2330:351 (Sparke).

Condition: A

Nice impressions with light toning along the edges of the sheets and a few minor chips and tears along along the edges. The Monasteriensis map has a small chip at bottom right and a short adjacent tear that has been closed on verso with archival tape.