Ptolemy/Frisius. Oceani Occidentalis Seu Terrae Novae Tabula, North America, 1522(1535).  38 cm x 29 cm. Original color. Excellent condition. 

Very rare in color. Verso also colored, extraordinarily rare thus. This is a slightly smaller version of the famous Waldseemuller map of 1513. It was published in atlases from 1522 to 1541. All editions are increasingly rare today. The present example is from the rare 1535 edition (most copies were destroyed by Calvin).  This and the 1541 edition (see example below) are notable in that the text on the verso argues  (correctly) against calling these lands America since they were discovered by Columbus!  Given that the 1513 map is nowadays almost unobtainable, this is the first map to focus on North America that most collectors can obtain. Burden No. 4.  $$$$$$

Abraham Ortelius. Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio, 1570. First Issue! 48 cm x 36 cm. Black and white.

First state, first issue, identifiable by the mis-naming of the Azores as the Canary Islands.  Ortelius’ Western Hemisphere occupies a special place in cartographic history since the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in which it appeared is the first modern atlas.  Thus this map, from the first issue, is truly the first appearance of the first modern map of America. In areas extensively explored by the Spaniards, the map shows a relatively accurate portrayal: the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida peninsula, and the Caribbean basin.  However, the map also show an incorrect large western bulge in the area of present day Chile.  Also, the east-west extent of North America is exaggerated so that Baja Peninsula and California are thirty degrees too far to the west. Burden No. 39.  $$$$$$

Sebastian Munster. Tabula Novarum Insularum, 1540 (ca. 1578). 34 cm x 27 cm. Beautiful original color.

This woodcut map of the Americas, which appeared only fifty years after Columbus' voyage, is the first separate printed map of the Western Hemisphere. The present example is of great rarity, being in beautiful original color.  For the delineation of the Americas, Munster drew on the findings of Verrazano, who was sent by Francis I to explore the New World in 1529 and to find a passage to the East. The Verrazano misconception of an ocean just to west of the Carolina coast led to the near-bifurcation of the North American continent for which this map is so famous. Despite the error, the seminal importance and daring of the map cannot be denied. No other cartographer before Munster devoted a map solely to the depiction of the two American continents as a single entity. This map can truly be considered a forerunner of a series of maps over the next thirty years (Gastaldi, Medina, Ortelius, etc) that established the beginnings of American cartography and that, within a single crucial generation, culminated in maps that were essentially modern and accurate. Burden No. 12.  $$$$$

Abraham Ortelius. Maris Pacifici, 1589. 50 cm x 35 cm. Full contemporary color.

The first printed map of the Pacific. Acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful and decorative maps which appeared in the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, it was also one of the most important. It includes an important early depiction of the west coast of North America, Japan and New Guinea, and according to Wagner "constitutes a distinct departure, being unlike any map of the Northwest coast published before 1589". Ortelius clearly had two or more distinct sources for this map. One was Hogenberg's very rare map of the Americas, also done in 1589, which has recently been shown to be a prototype for the Maris Pacifici. However, Ortelius altered some of the nomenclature on the west coast from that given by Hogenberg, altered the Gulf of California and substantially reduced the east-west extent of western North America, for the first time bringing it closer to reality. Ref: Burden No. 74, Wagner, p.73. $$$$$

Jan Jansson. America Septentrionalis, ca. 1636.  55 cm x 46 cm. Beautiful contemporary color, excellent condition.  Proof issue with blank cartouche.

The first folio-sized atlas map of North America to show California as an island. As such, with the prestige of Jansson and Hondius behind it, this map became the cartographic progenitur that impelled the trend of showing an insular California for the next century. Thus, this proof state is of major importance in the history of American cartography.  Burden No. 245.  $$$$

Jodocus Hondius. America, 1606. 37.5 cm x 50 cm. Full contemporary color.

An stunning example of this monument to early cartography. This is one of a handful of the early foundation maps of North and South America. It has the famed inset of the Indians in the lower left corner, beautiful ships, sea monsters and birds. The map has an extended western coast of North America and a curious indentation on the northeast coast above Chesapeake Bay. Burden 150,  Plate 150. $$$$

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Bordone, North America, 1528(1534), x 14 cm x 8.5 cm, Black and white, excellent condition.  Published in Bordone’s Isolario.

Early edition of the fundamentally important first map of North America ever published.  Bordone’s Isolario was the landmark atlas of the world’s islands. The appearance of this map in the atlas shows that the author conceived North America as separate from Asia.  The map shows the eastern coast of North America, New York harbor, the south shore of Long Island (not yet known to be an island), New England, and eastern Canada.  Burden, No. 4   $$$

Willem Blaeu. Americae Nova Tabula, Ca. 1617. 55 cm x 41 cm. Full original color.

One of the examples of a "carte a figures", this map served as a prototype for maps of the Western Hemisphere for over half a century. The map itself, surrounded on three sides by city views of the Americas and costumed figures of natives also reflected updated cartographical information. This is probably the most famous and decorative map of America ever published. It represents the pinnacle of Dutch cartographic supremacy. Burden No. 189.  $$$$

Ptolemy/Frisius. Oceani Occidentalis Seu Terrae Novae Tabula, North America, 1522(1541).  38 cm x 29 cm. Black and white. Excellent condition. 

Same as above map in black and white. Burden No. 4.  $$$$$