Penrose, ‘Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance’, pp. 292-4; Borba de Moraes, II, pp. 644-5 (‘This magnificent edition is hard to find today’), Sabin 57990.

If you buy this set you may find yourself later asking “why did I do this?” because it is printed so much later than the period it relates to. Reassurance will come from reading the following books:

Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance 1420-1620 by Boies Penrose. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1952 (26 copies available on ABE)

Books to Build an Empire by John Parker. Amsterdam: 1965 (19 copies available on ABE)

English Interpreters of the Iberian New World from Purchas to Stevens (1603- 1726) (4 copies available on ABE)

There is more. There is Georg Rithaymer’s De Orbis Terrarum situ compendium...printed in 1538; a 1598-99 Ptolemy; and a Strabo, printed in 1597 that contains a Mercator world map. There is of course more. It is possible to collect the earliest history of the new world. It simply takes patience, luck and money.

Martayan Lan
Fine Antique Maps, Atlases, & City Views
Catalogue 31

Okay, you promised your spouse you wouldn’t buy any more books or maps until the stock market recovered. AND the stock market is doing much better. It is way off its lows even if it isn’t anywhere near its highs AND you still have your day job. But it’s important to show restraint so you are deciding that you aren’t going to buy every item in this catalogue even though the thought is coursing through your mind. The good news is there are only 58 items. The bad news is that they will cost you $466,750. In other words, it is just another day at the office for collectors of maps and books containing maps. Maps are history and beauty in a form that makes it easy to display as well as hard to say no to.