Following Venezuela's detachment from Gran Colombia in 1830, General Jose Antonio Paez advocated for the creation of maps of the new nation to his Congress. On October 14, 1830, Venezuela's Congress approved his proposal and appointed Italian Agustin Codazzi to produce maps of all the provinces "with the appropriate notions of physical geography and statistics." Codazzi performed the work from 1830-38 and the atlas was published in 1840 in Caracas. The atlas features 18 double-page sheets (some with multiple maps) and cover not only political geography but also physical and historical mapping. The list of maps include the world (historical), Western Hemisphere, and various regional/country maps of northern and western South America, Venezuela, Colombia, and Guyana. 5 sheets are specifically used to depict Venezuela's provinces including Caracas, Barcelona, ​​Cumana, Margarita, Coro, Maracaibo, Merida, Barinas, Barquisimeto, Carabobo, Trujillo, and Apure. The volume ends with an attractive plate depicting comparative rivers and mountains within Venezuela. An elegant title page depicts a jungle scene with a native and puma in the foreground and snow-capped mountains in the background. Rebacked with cloth binder's tape over contemporary marbled boards.

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Condition: B+

Contemporary color with faint toning and some light scattered foxing. The map of western South America has an archivally repaired 3" tear in a blank area of the map. A previous owner's stamp (an oil company) is on the verso of one map. Rebacked with modern front free-endpaper. Covers have average shelf wear with some chips along the edges.