This copper engraving is from a remarkable series of publications, illustrating voyages of discovery and travels of exploration to various parts of the world. The project was begun by Theodore de Bry of Frankfurt, in 1590 and was to continue for another 54 years. They became known collectively as the Grands Voyages (to America and the West Indies) and the Petits Voyages (to the Orient and the East Indies). De Bry died after the first six parts of the Grands Voyages were completed. The project was completed initially by his widow and two sons, Johann Theodore de Bry and Johann Israel de Bry, then by Johann Theodore's son-in-law, Matthaus Merian, in 1624.

This engraving is based on Baptista Boazio's important map of 1588. It illustrates the attack by Sir Francis Drake's fleet on the Spanish fort and settlement on May 28 and 29, 1586. St. Augustine, the oldest European city in the United States, was established by Juan Menendez de Aviles in 1565. It soon became the Spanish center of power in North America. Tensions were high between the Spanish and English in the latter part of the sixteenth century, and this attack was one of the highlights of Drake's campaign against the Spanish colonies in America. The plate first appeared as Plate IX in Part VIII of de Bry's Grands Voyages in 1599, and was republished in Johann Ludwig Gottfried's Historia Antipodum, an abridgement of De Bry's voyages to America that incorporated much new material. Matthaus Merian, de Bry's son-in-law and publisher for Historia Antipodum, was granted access to de Bry's copper-engraved plates. On a sheet of German text measuring 9.1 x 13.5".

See also lot 750 for Philip Burden's The Mapping of North America - A List of Printed Maps 1511-1700 that describes this map.

References: Burden #131; Van Groesen (De Bry's America) p. 316.

Condition: A

A crisp impression with a hint of toning at top left.