[4], 126, [2]; 52 [i.e. 56], [7] pp. Engraved pictorial title page. With 19 double-page engraved maps in the first part & 4 engraved maps on 2 sheets in the second part. (folio) 29.5x14 cm (11½x7½"), period full calf stamped with gilt armorial shield of the Bibliotheca Palatina on each cover, with the library bookplate on the front pastedown, raised spine bands, old paper title label. First Edition in French.

Cornelius Wytfliet's history of the Indies, the first part covering the west, the second the east. When the first part was first published in Latin as Descriptionis Ptolemaicae augmentum in 1597, it was the first atlas of America. The work was evidently popular as two further Latin editions appeared in 1598 and 1603. The work added the narratives of Magini and others on the East Indies and was first published under the present title in 1605, translated into French, of which the present copy is an example. Further editions of this compilation appeared in 1607 and 1611. The nineteen double-page engraved maps of the American continent appeared in all of the Latin and French editions. The first map (a double-hemisphere world map) is based on Mercator's influential map of 1587, and other American maps derive from Petrus Plancius's world map of 1592. The regional maps include a seminal map of the East Coast ("Norumbega et Virginia," Burden 103), the first printed map of California and the southwest ("Granata Nova et California," Burden 106),and the first map to use "Canada" in its title ("Nova Francia et Canada," Burden 102). The four small maps, which first appeared in the 1605 edition, include the second known printed map of the Philippine Islands. Phillips calls the work "as important in the history of the early cartography of the new world, as Ptolemy's maps are in the study of the old."

Further Notes from the Files of Warren Heckrotte

Provenance: Parke-Bernet 10/28/69

References: Burden 102; Koeman III, 219; Phillips 4459

Complete list of maps:

• Utriusque Hemispherii Delineato
• Chica sive Patagonica et Australis Terra 1597
• Chili Provincia Amplissima
• Plata Americæ Provincia
• Brasilia
• Peruani Regni Descriptio, 1597
• Castilia Aurifera cum Vicinis Provinciis
• Residuum Continentis cum Adiadentibus Insulis
• Hispaniola Insula
• Cuba Insula et Iamaica
• Iucatana Regio et Fondura
• Hispania Nova
• Granata Nova et California
• Limes Occidentis Quivira et Anian 1597
• Conibas Regio cum Vicinis Gentibus
• Florida et Apalche
• Norumbega et Virginia 1597
• Nova France et Canada 1597
• Estotilandia et Laboratoris Terra
• India Orientalis
• Iapaniæ Regnum
• ChinæRegnum
• Insulæ Philippinæ

This is a variant issue without publication date on title page.

References: P-LG 1143. Gallup, PBSA 76 (1982) pp 63-73, "The first Separately published Atlas entirely devoted to the Americas: Wytfliet's Descriptionis ---" suggests that 1605 variant without date may be later printing.