ICELAND. Mercator. 1595/c1633.
Islandia. Imprint: Per Gerardum Mercatorem Cum Privilgeo. 11"h x 17"w. Attractive early color. Wide margins with some staining. Overall age toning; minor loss at lower centerfold; very good.

A French text edition - 1628, 1633 or 1635, of the original 1595 plate by Gerard Mercator. Published by Henricus Hondius so generally known as a Mercator-Hondius map.

The map image strongly portrays the rugged mountainous terrain and the fjords. Mt. Hekla, located in the south central region, is depicted as an active volcano with flames and smoke issuing forth. Iceland has more than 100 volcanoes.

SOUTHERN ITALY. Ortelius. 1570/1571.
Regni Neopolitani Verissima Secundum Antiquorum et Recentiorum Traditionem Descriptio, Pyrrho Ligorio Auct. 14.3"h x 19.6"w. Latin text on page 37. Centerfold repaired. Colored. Very good condition.

First published in 1570, this version from Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp: Aegidius Coppen Diesth, 1571). Reference Koeman Ort 2 and van den Broecke 139. Van den Broecke estimates that 275 copies of the 1571 Latin edition were printed (The Map Collector issue 36). The map was based on the original by Pirro Ligorio (1496-1583), an Italian cartographer.

This map covers the southern half of Italy, starting just south of Rome and continuing to the eastern tip of Sicily. The islands of Ischia and Capri are among those included.

ITALY. Ortelius. 1570/1571.
Italiae Novissima Descriptio Auctore Iacobo Castaldo Pedemontano. 14.1"h x 20.2"w. Worm hole east of Trieste near the centerfold repaired. Narrow, three inch long printer’s crease at top near center. Centerfold reinforced. Tear in lower margin reinforced. Image good. Color. Latin text on page 32. Map by Giacomo Gastaldi (ca.1500-ca.1565).

Published in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp, Aegidius Coppen Diesth, 1571). Reference Koeman Ort 2 and van den Broecke 117 with the word "Servia" in the upper right corner. The later plate omits that word.

Shows Italy and Corsica and parts of Sicily and Sardinia. Also shows the Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia and Albania. There are several ships at sea. Neptune is shown embracing a mermaid.

SOUTHERN ITALY. Mercator. 1589/1623.
Pvglia Piana, Terra Di Barri, Terra Di Otranto, Calibria et Basilicata. Above bottom neat line: Per Gerardum Mercatorem Cum privilegio. 14"h x 18"w. Upper and lower margins reinforced. Image very good. This map by Gerard Mercator first appeared in 1589.

This version of the map with Latin text was published in Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas ... Henrici Hondij, Amsterodami An D. 1623. Koeman Me27A.

Includes Italy below the 39th parallel. Also includes part of Sicily.

ITALY. Conder. 1794/1806.
Italy, with the Islands of Sicily, Sardinia, & Corsica, Drawn from the Best Authorities. 8 ½”w x 10 ½”h. Below bottom neatline: London. Published Jany. 1st. 1794, by R. Wilkinson, No. 58. Cornhill. Lower right: T. Conder sculpt. Outline and wash color augmented. Margins stained.

Published in A General Atlas being a Collection of Maps of the World.... London: Robert Wilkinson, 1800 (but the Contents page is dated 1805 and another map is dated 1806). Engraved by Thomas Conder.

Following the Italian Wars (1494 to 1559), Italy saw a long period of relative peace, first under Habsburg Spain (1559 to 1713) and then under Habsburg Austria (1713 to 1796). The island of Corsica, mentioned in the title, was sold by Genoa to France in 1768. During the period depicted on this map Italy became a client state of the French Republic (1796 to 1814). The Congress of Vienna (1814) restored the situation of the late 18th century, which was overturned by the movement of Italy toward unification. Italy finally became a nation-state in 1861, when most of the states of the peninsula were united under King Victor Emmanuel II of the Savoy dynasty, which ruled over Piedmont (upper left of the map). Rome remained for a decade under the Papacy, and became part of the Kingdom of Italy only in 1870, the final date of Italian unification. The Vatican is now an independent enclave surrounded by Rome. The islands of Sicily and Sardinia are now part of Italy.

ITALY. MILAN - BOLOGNA. 1814.
Viaggio da Milano a Bologna. Image size 11 ¾”w x 5 ½”h (300x140mm). Left margin chipped. Image in very good condition. Uncolored. Italian, c1814.

Shows roadways and terrain features from the Milan Italy area to the Bologna area. The Po River is shown flowing from west to east near the center of the map.

ITALY. GENOA TO TURIN. 1814.
Viaggio da Antibo a Genova e a Turino. 12”w x 7”h (305 x 180 mm). Left margin close in lower third. Fold lines. Minor toning near one fold. Good condition. Italian, c1814.

Shows the coast of the Ligurian Sea extending east from Antibo to Genoa and the inland area north to Turin. Roads and natural terrain features are shown. Mountains are shown by hachures.

ITALY. FLORENCE - LIVORNO - GENOA. 1814.
Viaggio da Forenze a Livorno e a Genova. 11 ½”w x 5 ½”h (290 x 140 mm). Left margin chipped. Light toning near fold line. Image in very good condition. Italian, c1814.

Extends along the Ligurian Sea from Genoa to Livorno and inland to Florence and Bologna. Shows the road network and natural terrain features. Mountains are shown by hachures.

ITALY. MESSINA - PALERMO. 1814.
Viaggio da Messina a Palermo. 12”w x 5 ½”h. Right margin ragged where removed from book. Image in very good condition. Italian, c1814.

Includes the north coast of Sicily from Palermo on the west to Messina on the east. Shows roads and natural terrain features. Mountains are depicted by hachures.

EMS ESTUARY. Pitt. 1680.
Groninga Dominium. Autore Bartholdo Wicheringe. Bottom left: Apud Janssonio – Waesbergios; Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart. 15"h x 19 1/2"w. Light staining. Image very good. Wide margins. Original color with gold highlights.

Published in Moses Pitt's The English Atlas, Volume 4, Netherlands (Oxford and Amsterdam, Jansson, Waesberger, Pitt & Swart, c1680).

This is a double-page map the Ems estuary dividing Holland and Germany with Gronningen, Netherlands on the left and Emden, Germany on the right. A prominent feature is the “Dollert” (Dollart), a large basin at the south end of the estuary.

ROMANIA. Ortelius. 1584/1592.
Romaniae, (quae olim Thracia dicta) Vicinarumque Regionum ... Auctore Iacobo Castaldo. Cum privilegio decennali. [1584 in old Roman numerals]. 14"h x 20"w. Stains in margins; slight staining in image; holes in lower centerfold outside neat line. Image in very good condition. Latin text verso, p 96. From a map by Jacob Gastaldi (c1505-1566).

First published in 1584; this edition published in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum(Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1592), Koeman Ort 27B and van den Broecke 159, State 1.

A huge cartouche in the style typical of Ortelius dominates the left of this map. In the lower left is a portion of the Adriatic Sea. In the lower right are the sea of Marmara and the Strait of Bosporus. In the news a few years ago were Bosnia, Craina, Dalmatia and Servia, separately named areas at that time. In the Black Sea are three ships; one is firing its cannons.

TRANSYLVANIA. Ortelius. 1570/1571.
Transilvania. Hanc ultra:vel: Transilvaniam, quae et Pannodacia, et Dacia Ripensis ... edidit Vienne, A'o 1566 ... Ioes Sabucus Pannonius. 12.1"h x 17.1"w. Latin text verso on page 43. Centerfold reinforced; colored. Joannes Sambucus (1531-1584) drew this map in 1566.

Published in Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp, Aegidius Coppen Diesth, 1571), Koeman Ort 2, Map 43. Van den Broecke 152 with the five lines of text in the right cartouche; State 1. Van den Broecke estimates that 275 copies of the 1571 Latin edition were printed (The Map Collector, issue 36). In 1575 this plate was replaced by Plate 153. Much rarer than Plate 153. Only 1675 copies of all editions were printed, making this map much rarer than the typical Ortelius map.

Transylvania is a region in northern Romania. The map is quite distorted both in latitude and longitude, but major features can be correlated to modern maps. A short segment of the Danube River is shown at the lower right. Near the left center is a city titled in its Latin, German, and Hungarian names: "Claudiopolis/Clausenberg/Kolosuar", now Cluj-Napoca. Similarly. near the right center is "Corona Stephanopolis/Cronstatt/Brasso", now Brasov.

RUSSIA. Bonne. c1780.
L'Empire de Russie, en Europe et en Asie. 1 ere Feuille. Par M. Bonne, Ingenieur-Hydrographe de la Marine Lower right: Andre sculp. Upper right: 81. 14"h x 9"w. Image in very good condition. Map in French. Map by Rigobert Bonne (1727-1795). Engraved by Gespard Andre.

Published in Atlas de Toutes Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre. . . (Paris: G.T. F. Raynal, c1780).

This is a map of the western third of Russia, extending from Poland and Sweden to the Caspian Sea. Mountains are shown in shading and profile.

RUSSIA. Gray. 1877.
Russia. 12”w x 15”h. Margins slightly soiled. A few small chips in right and left margins. Map image in very good condition. Original wash color.

Published in The National Atlas Containing Elaborate Topographical Maps of the United States . . . (Philadelphia, O. W. Gray & Son, 1877).

This is a map of European Russia, the portion west of the Ural Mountains. “Georgia” is at the bottom of the map between the Caspian and Black Seas.

SWITZERLAND. Münster. 1545-1552.
Valesiae Alter et VII Nova Tabula. 13 ½”w x 10”w. Woodcut. Latin text verso with page number 36. This number appears only on the 1545, 1551, and 1552 editions of the map. Dampstain in right third of map. Wrinkling lower right corner. Right margin augmented.

Published in Sebastian Münster, Geographia Universalis,Basle: Heinrich Petri, 1545 and in Geographia Claudii Ptolemaei.... Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1552. Petri (1508-1579) was Munster's stepson.

This is a Ptolemaic-style map of southern Switzerland. Mountains are shown in profile. St. Moritz is at the lower right. Sitten (in German), now Sion, is at the lower center. It is the bilingual capital of the Canton of Valais.

Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Geographia (1540) was one of the earliest descriptions of the world and a major work in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe. At least 41 separate editions of his famed Geographiae and Cosmographiawere published between 1540 and 1628.

Claudius Ptolemaeus (approx. 100 - approx. 180 AD.) also known as Ptolemy, was a cartographer, geographer and astronomer working in Alexandria. Ptolemy worked at the museum in Alexandria, which had one of the most important libraries of the Ancient World. This provided him the basis for his extensive research in the fields of astronomy, geography, optics, etc. In his “'Geographike Hyphegesis”, he wrote an introduction to cartography and a list of coordinates of over 8,000 locations on the surface of the earth known in his time. None of his maps, if any, survives.

SWITZERLAND. Ortelius. 1570/1571.
Helvetiae Descriptio, Aegidio Tschudo Auct. 13.5"h x 17.9"w. Latin text on page 31. Centerfold lightly toned.

Map by Aegidicus von Tschudi (1505-1572), a Swiss Cartographer. From Abraham Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Antwerp, Aegidius Coppen Diesth, 1571), Koeman Ort 2. Van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas Maps, 115.

This map is oriented with North toward the bottom. Numerous mountains and lakes are shown, including Lemanus Lacus (Lake Leman or Lake Geneva) and Acronius Lacus (Lake Constance or the Bodensee), shown draining into the Renus fl. (Rhine River).

TURKEY & HUNGARY. Guthrie. 1788.
Turkey in Europe and Hungary. 8"h x 10"w. Small light stain lower right corner. Image very good.

Published in William Guthrie (1708-1770), New Geographical, Historical & Commercial Grammar (London, 1788).

Countries outlined and named. Mountains shown in profile and shading. Also includes Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Crete, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Transylvannia, Moldavia, most of the Black Sea, plus parts of the former Soviet Union.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE. Muenster. 1545.
Descriptio Totius IIlyridis XVI No Tab. 11”h x 15”w. Right margin trimmed within neat line as published. Centerfold repair in upper margin. Repair at left part of lower coordinate scale. Image very good. Woodcut. Latin text verso, page 44.

Published in Sebastian Muenster Geographia Universalis.... (Basle: Henrich Petri, 1545, 1551 and 1552). Heinrich Petri, Muenster’s son-in-law, published the Geographia for Muenster.

This is a primitive style woodcut map of the ancient country of Illyria comprising the East Adriatic coast and the hinterlands. The map is titled “Sclavonia” in the text verso. Included are Northeast Italy, Trieste, Croatia, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Serbia. The map is oriented with North to the bottom. The Saw (Sava) River flows left across the bottom of the map. Further downstream it joins the Danube at Belgade (not shown). The Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire controlled these areas at the time of this map.