Full Contemporary Color with Gilt Highlights

"Novissima et Accuratissima Septentrionalis ac Meridionalis Americae...", Wit, Frederick de

This is the seventh state of this great map of the Americas, originally engraved circa 1675, and updated with the addition of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Quiri Regio, Fretum Aniani and Terra Esonis. While the decorative features follow Visscher, the cartography is largely based on Sanson. California is an Island, the Great Lakes are open-ended in the west, and the R. del Norte flows from a large western lake and empties into the sea between the mainland and California, labeled Mare Vermio. In South America, the mythical lakes of Parime Lacus and Xarayes are shown, along with vignettes of a battle scene and a village in the Brazilian interior. The pictorial title cartouche contains scenes of gold panning, hunting and a native chief standing beneath an umbrella. The only change De Wit made was that the chief is standing on the left rather than on the right as in Visscher's composition. The top cartouche depicts angels struggling with a devil for the soul of a Native American.

References: Burden #465; McLaughlin #49, Tooley (America) p.120 #33.

Condition: B+

A sharp impression and full contemporary color with gilt highlights, on a sheet with a small "P" watermark. The sheet has been professionally backed in archival tissue to repair separations along the centerfold, a chip at top right, and a few small cracks in the title cartouche, with a minute amount of loss in the vignette surrounding the title cartouche. There is faint toning along the centerfold and a minor abrasion in the Atlantic Ocean.