Venetia, Heredi di Simon Galignani, 1590.
Folio [310 x 214 mm] of (3) bl.ll., (12) ll., 201 pp., (1) p., (1) bl.l. An engraved frontispiece, 47 copper engraved maps and the printer’s mark at the end. Some slight foxing. Preserved in its contemporary limp vellum with small flaps, flat spine with small portions missing, handwritten title on the lower edge. Contemporary binding.
Third edition widely enlarged of this famous atlas, illustrated with 47 maps, that is to say 17 more than in the First edition of 1572. Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, n°461; Sabin 64150 ; Adams 1906.
Pages 157 to 184 are dedicated to America and contain « Descrittione della Gran Citta e isola Temistitan » and « Descrittione dell’Isola et terra di Santa Croce, overo Mondo Nuovo » with a reduced version of the very important map of North America published by Forlani in Venice in 1565, the first map to show America as a geographic entity of its own, and the second map to show in details the Strait of Anian. These pages also present the descriptions of Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, of S. Iacopo, S. Lorenzo, S. Giovanni with 5 maps. The book concludes with « Descrittione del Mappamondo » and « Discorso intorno alla Carta da navigare » pp. 193-201 with 2 world maps. The greater part of the texts dedicated here to America is published here for the first time. This third edition contains 2 maps that are published here for the first time, absent from the 1576 second edition: « Descrittione dell’Istria » and « Descrittione dell’Isola d’Elandia, isola de Gotti ».
The illustrations consist of 1 title printed in an architectural border decorated with cartographic symbols, the printer’s mark at the back of the last leaf, and 47 finely copper-engraved maps. The 47 maps of Girolamo Porro, a famous member of the Italian School, are superbly drawn.
An attractive pure copy particularly wide margined (height: 310 mm), one of the largest known, preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
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