This fine beautifully hand
coloured
original antique map of Ireland by Gerald Mercator was
published by Rumold Mercator &
Jodocus Hondius in the
very early 1607 Latin edition of Mercators Atlas.
This map is magnificent with beautiful original hand
colouring. Original colouring such as this is scarce and
hard to find.
These maps, published in the early editions of Mercators
atlas, are the original maps drawn and engraved by
Gerald Mercator in the mid to late 16th century,
published by his sons Rumold & Henricus as an atlas,
after his death, in 1595. After two editions the plates
were purchased by
Jodocus Hondius in 1604 and continued
to be published until the mid 1630's when the plates
were re-engraved and updated by Jan Jansson and Henricus
Hondius.
The
earliest maps of Ireland up to the year 1500 or so share
the shortcomings of those of the rest of the British
Isles especially as represented on world maps. It was
not to be expected that lands literally on the very edge
of the known world could be depicted with any accuracy;
very often one feels that the cartographers or engravers
placed the islands in the nearest available space
consistent with their imagined position. Even in the
first printed Ptolemaic map there is still much
distortion in Ireland's shape and geographical position
but, on the other hand, a quite surprising number of
place names and other details are shown, as many, in
fact, as in the rest of Britain put together. This
detailed knowledge is not as puzzling as it might
appear, for the Ptolemy maps, at least the later
editions from 1513 onwards, were based on Italian
portulan charts and these, in turn, reflected knowledge
gained during the long commercial relationship which had
existed between Italy and Ireland ever since the
thirteenth century. The distortions on land-surveyed
maps remained uncorrected until late in the seventeenth
century but a quite accurate coastal outline was given
in the marine atlases of Waghenaer, Dudley, Blaeu and
later Dutch chart makers.
Apart
from a few manuscript maps and very rare maps printed in
Rome and Venice (George Lily, 1546, and others in the
period 1560-66) Ireland is shown on Mercator's large map
of the British Isles (1564), and in his Atlas (1595) and
as a separate sheet in the Ortelius atlases (from 1
573). The most important map, however, was compiled by
an Italian, Baptista Boazio, probably in the 1 5 8os.
This has survived in manuscript form and may have been
used by Pieter van der Keere for a map published by
Jodocus Hondius in 1591. Boazio's map was subsequently
published by John Sudbury, who later sold Speed's maps,
and this version was included in editions of the
Ortelius atlases from 6oz onwards. The Boazio map is a
quite splendid map, very decorative, some copies even
showing an Eskimo complete with kayak and hunting spear.
Thereafter the trend is familiar: Camden, Speed, Blaeu,
Jansson, Sanson and others of the Dutch and French
schools all included a general map or maps of the Irish
provinces in their atlases. Speed's map of the whole of
Ireland was based at least partly on surveys by Robert
Lythe (c.1570) and Francis Jobson (c.1590)
and included figures in national costume; it was for
long regarded as the best map available and was much
copied by publishers in other countries.
In
1685 the first atlas of Ireland to match Saxton's At/as
of Eng/andand Wales was published by Sir William
Petty as Hiberniae Detineaho, the result of a
highly organized and detailed survey (the 'Down' survey)
carried out in the years following 1655. Re-issued in
miniature form soon afterwards by Francis Lamb, Petty's
Atlas was widely used as the basis for practically all
maps of Ireland produced by English, French, Dutch and
German publishers in the following century. Apart from
re-issues of Petty's Atlas and its many copyists there
were maps by George Grierson, a Dublin publisher, John
Rocque, the Huguenot surveyor and engraver who spent
some years in Dublin, and Bernard Scale, Rocque's
brother-in-law.
Towards
the end of the century many large-scale maps were
published but, as in England, private mapping was
gradually overtaken and eventually replaced by the
Ordnance Survey maps produced between the years 1824 and
1846.(Ref: Koeman, Tooley)
Condition Report:
Paper
thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, red, green, purple, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 20in x 18in (560mm x 430mm)
Plate size: - 17 1/2in x 14in (420mm x 330mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning to margins
Plate area: - Old professional repair to 45mm sq to left
side
Verso: - Old professional repair to text "H"
If you wish to discuss this or any other item
please email or call - good luck, Simon.
Classical Images
61 (0) 409 551910 Tel
simon@classicalimages.com
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