Lot Details
Lot 95
BLAEU, WILLIAM Nova Virginia Tabula.
Amsterdam: circa 1640 or later. Engraved double-page map with later hand-coloring. Latin text on verso with signature mark "H." Neat lines 15 x 19 inches (38 x 48.5 cm); the full sheet 18 3/4 x 22 1/4 inches (47.5 x 54 cm). Evenly toned, one offset area to the extreme upper right.
An attractive example of William Blaeu's issue of John Smith's landmark map of Virginia. First published in 1612, Smith's map was based on his 1607-1609 explorations of the rivers that emptied into Chesapeake Bay. The map offers a wealth of information on the names and locations of Native American tribes along with the topography of the region. The extent of Smith's explorations are denoted by Maltese crosses. The first appearance of the "most important derivative" of Smith's map was issued by Hondius in Amsterdam in 1618; the plate was subsequently sold to William Blaeu in 1629 and was extensively published over the next 42 years, greatly increasing Europe's knowledge of the English in Virginia. Blaeu began issuing the map with his imprint in 1630 and his issues are considered the second state of the first derivative. The present example was extracted from a circa 1650 edition of Blaeu's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, indicated by the Latin text and signature mark on the verso. Burden The Mapping of North America, 193; Tooley, The Mapping of America, p. 161, plate 69.
C
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