MEU015
Polonia et Silesia
Attractive antique map depicting what is today Central and Southern Poland and part of Germany, as it was in the late 1500s.
Many place names and other details. Strap work cartouche. French text on verso.
By Gerard Mercator c1585; and based on earlier maps by the Polish cartographers Bernard Wapowski (1450-1535) and Waclaw Grodecki (1535-1591). (For further details, see the rappersvil collection at http://www.muzeum-polskie.org)
From Atlas Major, an edition c1600 (key letters Qqqqqq)
Gerard Kremer, known as Mercator (1512-94), is a towering figure in cartography.
“For nearly 60 years, during the most important and exciting period in the story of modern map making, Gerard Mercator was the supreme cartographer, his name synonymous with the form of map projection still in use today … his influence transformed land surveying … ” (Moreland and Bannister.).
He also revolutionized generally accepted ideas of the shape and size of the continents.
He was the first person to produce an atlas in the modern sense of a bound comprehensive collection of maps.
Following his death, his business and publication of his Atlas was continued by his sons and grandsons and ultimately taken over in 1604 by Jodocus Hondius.
Very attractive all over original hand colour, Overall condition good, there is some offsetting of colour from one page to the next and the paper has browned with age (which is largely hidden by the bright hand colour). $700.00
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