Palm Beach March Auction

Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula. Auct. Guiljelmo Blaeuw Amsterdam, [circa 1640].Copper-engraved, hand-colored map, printed on two sheets joined as one; This example is from an atlas and is identifiable as a fourth sate by the addition of Blaeu's name to the title, and the omission of the 1606 date in the plate. Petrus Plancius' world map of 1592 was the main source of geographical information. Josua van Ende engraved this map, reducing it from Blaeu's 1605 wall map for inclusion in atlases. The map is shown on Mercator's projection. Along the top are allegorical representations of the sun and moon and the five known planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Vingnettes along the right and left sides depict the four elements and the four seasons. The vignettes along the lower edge show the seven wonders of the world: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus straddling the harbor at Rhodes, the Pyramids, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus at Cairo, the Temple of Diana, the Statue of Jupiter and the lighthouse at Alexandria.