Martayan Lan, the noted New York map seller, has issued their Catalogue 45 - Early & Rare World Maps, Atlases & Rare Books. Mainly from a Private Collection. We will focus on the earliest, though everything here is early, and most very early. Of the 31 items offered, 28 were printed before 1600. These maps may not provide accurate directions for travelers today, but they do reveal what people believed the world to be during the earliest years of the Age of Discovery. They reveal the rapid progress in learning that took place during the 16th century, when the world to Europeans expanded from Europe, and a not well understood Africa and Asia, to a much better defined place that now included the Americas. Here are some of the earliest of these early maps.
There is no more appropriate place to start than the first printed map. It is a map of the world, though it is a small, undetailed, and undifferentiated map. Originally created almost a millennium earlier by Isidore Bishop of Seville, it was reproduced in Etymologiae, an encyclopedic type of work. This is what is known as a TO map, and it's about as primitive as it gets. It consists of a circle with a T inside. On the left side of the staff of the T is Europe, to the right Africa. Above the crossbar of the T is Asia. The staff represents the Mediterranean Sea, the crossbar some vague combination of waterways such as the Nile and Black Sea. The O, which surrounds the map, represents the oceans. The only other notations on the map are directions. The T-shape of the dividers undoubtedly represents religious symbolism, being a similar shape to a cross. Item 1. Priced at $100,000.
The second item in the catalogue is the one Martayan Lan describes as the first "acquirable, realistic printed map of the world." It is from the 1478 Roman Ptolemy. It provides a surprisingly realistic depiction of Europe, northern Africa, and eastern Asia. It is a map Columbus would have used, and it implied a smaller world, encouraging Columbus to believe the route to Asia heading west was far shorter than it is. $175,000.
The changes displayed in item 3 are subtle, yet enormously important. This is taken from the 1482 edition of Cosmographi Geographia. It is the first map to show the earliest knowledge gained during the Age of Discovery. There was no New World yet, no Columbus. However, what has been incorporated is knowledge gained from early Portuguese explorations off the west coast of Africa. The Portuguese had discovered the Cape Verde and other islands, and this map also shows the newly acquired knowledge that the coastline of Africa turned to a southeasterly direction as one headed farther south. Prior maps had cut off the continent before ever reaching that point. $65,000.
Item 5 is far more than a map. It is an account of the world from Creation through its time of publication - 1493. This is Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle, an amazingly thorough history of the world for its time. From a cartographic standpoint, it offers the last of the maps of the pre-Columbian world, that is, a world map without the New World. $225,000.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: APRES DE MANNEVILLETTE Le Neptune Oriental
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSAS Eaux fortes de la Sicile et quelques vues d’Espagne
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSINI DE THURY Carte générale et particulière de la France.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: JOUY; GARNERAY Vues des côtes de France dans l'Océan et dans la Méditerranée
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LA PÉROUSE Voyage autour du monde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LE GENTIL DE LA GALAISIERE Voyage dans les Mers de l’Inde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LICENT Hoang Ho, Pai Ho, Loan Ho, Leao Ho. Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du golfe du Pei Tcheuly
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: FRENCH SCHOOL FROM THE 19th CENTURY Panorama d’Athènes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PEETERS Description des principales villes, havres et isles du golfe de Venise
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PÉRON; FREYCINET Voyage de découverte aux terres australes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: STACKELBERG La Grèce : vues pittoresques et topographiques.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: VALENTINER Atlas des Sonnensystems.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). The Thirteen Problems, first edition, The Crime Club, 1932. £15,000 to £20,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Dumb Witness, first edition, 1937. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Cards on the Table, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £2,000 to £3,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Carr (John Dickson)], "Carter Dickson" and John Rhode. Drop to his Death, first edition, Heinemann, [1939]. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Berkeley (Anthony). Jumping Jenny, first edition, Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. £800 to £1,200.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Marsh (Ngaio). Overture to Death, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Day-Lewis (Cecil)] "Nicholas Blake". The Beast Must Die, first edition, 1938. £750 to £1,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Brand (Christianna). Green for Danger, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1945. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Murder is Easy, first edition, signed by the author, 1939. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Sayers (Dorothy L.) Lord Peter Views the Body, first edition, Gollancz, 1928. £6,000 to £8,000.
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RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
Freeman’s | Hindman Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana November 14
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: LEROUX, Gaston. The Phantom of the Opera. FIRST AM. ED, FIRST ISSUE IN THE VERY RARE DUST JACKET. 1911. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD, John. A Monograph of the Trochilidae...Humming-Birds. L., [1849-] 1861. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: A COMPLETE RUN of Limited Editions Club publications, v.p. [mostly New York], 1929-2010. $50,000 – 60,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lon., 1949. FIRST EDITION IN A VERY FINE DUST JACKET. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD. A Monograph of the Ramphastidae...Toucans. L., [1852-] 54. SECOND ED. $35,000 – 45,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14:The Federalist. NY, 1788. FIRST EDITION, THICK PAPER COPY. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: SELBY. Plates to Selby’s Illustrations of British Ornithology. Edin., [1833-] 34. $20,000 – 30,000.