Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2013 Issue

Historic Maps from Cohen and Taliaferro

Antique maps and atlases.

Antique maps and atlases.

Recently released is Catalogue 3 of Fine Antique Maps & Atlases from Cohen & Taliaferro of New York City. Offered is a selection that includes some of the most important and historic of early maps, ranging to some more localized ones from the 19th century. Included are some of the very earliest to depict America. These are a few of the spectacular maps being offered.

In the decade before Columbus, European understanding of the world, at least from a mapping perspective, was virtually unchanged from where it been almost 1,500 years earlier. That is when the Alexandrian geographer/astronomer/mathematician Ptolemy produced his maps. We start with the map of the world taken from the Ulm Ptolemy, the second state of the atlas published in 1486. By the 1480s, there was more awareness of Greenland and Scandinavia, and Portuguese travelers had discovered some islands off the west coast of Africa, but otherwise the world was still essentially as Ptolemy had known it in the first and second century. In this map, only the northern part of Africa is shown, Asia ends slightly east of India. A bridge of land to the south connects Africa with Asia, making the Indian ocean an inland sea. There is no Pacific Ocean, poles, Australia, nor, of course, America. It was a small world in 1486. The map is surrounded by wind heads, a common element of antiquarian maps, and features contemporary color. Item 2. Priced at $165,000.

Item 3 offers one of the earliest maps to depict America, probably within about a year of the first such printed map. It was produced in 1507 by Johann Ruysch, who may have traveled to the New World himself. However, he likely saw America as part of Asia. North America is clearly attached to Asia (as is Greenland), though South America is less certain. Ruysch speculates that Spagnola (Hispaniola) is Marco Polo's Spangu, or Japan. Africa is now complete, looking very much as it does today, reflecting Bartholomew Diaz' 1488 journey around the southern tip of the continent. $265,000.

Item 5 is the 1513 Martin Waldseemuller map of the world from the Strasbourg Ptolemy. This is the first map to show America clearly separate from Asia, and is possibly even the first map to show the New World at all. It is often referred to as “The Admiral's map” because it refers to “the Admiral,” believed to be Columbus, though the map was not prepared by Columbus. A large part of South America appears in the southwestern corner, along with the islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, though North America is not displayed. Asia clearly ends on the eastern side of the map, revealing an ocean that separates it from the New World. While the map appeared in 1513, there is a case to be made, based on an earlier proof state and the fact that the map was not correctly sized for the atlas, that it may have been printed in 1505 or 1506 but not used until inserted in the 1513 atlas. If so, it would be the first printed map to display America. $95,000.

That 1513 atlas also included the first separate map of America, also by Martin Waldseemuller. This one not only contains more detail than the world map, but also shows North America, though clearly attached to the South and by more than a narrow isthmus. Cuba and Hispaniola (“Isabella” and “Spagnolla”) are shown in detail, but what is more interesting is the fairly accurate portrayal of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. How did Waldseemuller know about this? These features had not yet been discovered. It has led many to presume there must have been some unrecorded voyages to which Waldseemuller had access. Item 34. $95,000.

Item 35 is Jean Lattré's 1784 map of the United States, Carte des Etats Unis de L'Amerique... It is most notable as being the first map of the United States. Certainly, there were many maps of the land before that, but this French map was the first issued after the final ratification of the Treaty of Paris, which made the United States officially an independent country. The map not only depicts the country but contains a list of important events in the Revolution. $38,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 746. Speed's Dual Atlas of Britain & the World with 96 Maps (1676). Est. $70,000 - $85,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 9. Visscher's Superb Double-Hemisphere World Map with Representations of the Elements (1658). Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 58. One of the Most Important 16th Century Maps of the New World (1554). Est. $5,000 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 745. A Complete Example of Ortelius' Atlas of Ancient Geography (1624). Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 73. First English Map to Show California as an Island (1625). Est. $16,000 - $19,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 156. Bachmann's Dramatic View of the Mid-Atlantic Region (1861). Est. $1,800 - $2,200
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 741. Early Announcement of Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence (1776). Est. $9,000 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 695. The First Printed Map Devoted to the Pacific (1589). Est. $8,000 - $9,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 733. Superb Image of the Presentation of Jesus in Hand Color (1502). Est. $700 - $850
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 52. Produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch to Encourage Surrender (1945). Est. $200 - $230

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions