Books & Manuscripts, including Americana

Engraved map of Virginia with hand-coloring, SEVERAL AREAS HEIGHTENED IN GILT, fleur-de-lis watermark, 330 x 445 mm. (Upper margin trimmed close to neatline, several short tears to margins, a few small spots of adhesive residue on verso near edges.) Royal arms of England, decorative cartouche, compass rose, ships, canoes, and sea monsters. Provenance: illegible institutional stamp on verso.

"ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CARTOGRAPHICAL MILESTONES IN COLONIAL NORTH AMERICAN HISTORY... THE MOST ACCURATE MAP DRAWN IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY OF ANY PART OF THAT CONTINENT" (Burden)

Second state, with the initial "C" superimposed on the letter "E" in "Chesepiooc." The first map to depict and name the Chesapeake Bay ("Chesepiooc Sinus"), and the second map of Roanoke, after John White's manuscript map. White accompanied Raleigh's voyage in 1585, and served as governor of the ill-fated Roanoke settlement. The map depicts the coast from the Cape Lookout to the Chesapeake Bay; it influenced other 16th-century maps of the region by de Jode, Wytfliet, and Metellus. De Bry produced White's map to show the west along the top edge rather than north, which became the preferred orientation for mapmakers until the 18th-century. Burden 76; Church 140; Cumming, Southeast 3.