Art

A splendid, highly decorative mappemonde, a twin hemisphere map with smaller hemispheres of the poles; an early state of the map. California is shown as an island, fragments of the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand are shown, as is the "Terre de Iesso" between Asia and North America and South America continues to bulge alarmingly. Ornate baroque style scenes in each of the four corners depict the four seasons of each year; title along top edge. Gerard Valk was an active map engraver and publisher, who occasionally worked with Peter Schenk to prepare maps for atlases, for which a privilege was obtained in 1686. This map was heavily influenced by Jaillot's world map of 1674. Size: 585 x 500 mm. Copper engraving. Original colour. Fine condition.