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Dedicated to Elihu Yale, of Yale University Fame.
A handsome engraved map of the northern Netherlands, depicting Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland, and Groningen in the early 18th century. The title cartouche announces that the map is “Corrected, from the Observations communicated to the Royal Society at London & Royal Academy at Paris,” and it is "Humbly Dedicated to Elihu Yale Esq: of Place Grove in Denbyshire" a rare and early cartographic reference to the former East India merchant whose name would soon be given to Yale College.
Geographically, the map spans from the Westerschelde and Zeelandic islands in the southwest to Groningen and East Friesland in the northeast, extending eastward into the territories of Münster and Westphalia. It renders the low-lying terrain in dense detail, showing major rivers including the Rhine and Maas, along with dikes, lakes, shoals, and a network of towns and villages. The Zuider Zee commands the center of the composition, an inland sea that would not be dammed and drained until the 20th century.
The dramatic baroque cartouche at upper left is filled with maritime symbolism: Neptune with his trident, mermen and sea beasts, and an array of fish and seabirds.
John Senex (1678-1740) was one of the foremost mapmakers in England in the early eighteenth century. He was also a surveyor, globemaker, and geographer. As a young man, he was apprenticed to Robert Clavell, a bookseller. He worked with several mapmakers over the course of his career, including Jeremiah Seller and Charles Price. In 1728, Senex was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a rarity for mapmakers. The Fellowship reflects his career-long association as engraver to the Society and publisher of maps by Edmund Halley, among other luminaries. He is best known for his English Atlas (1714), which remained in print until the 1760s. After his death in 1740 his widow, Mary, carried on the business until 1755. Thereafter, his stock was acquired by William Herbert and Robert Sayer (maps) and James Ferguson (globes).
![Tabula Moderna Francie [Modern Map of France]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/101885.jpg)
