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Rare early map of the area around the Straits of Magellan.
The map shows the details reported by Johannes van Walbeeck, who joined the voyage as its mathematician / navigator, whose journal is regarded as one of the most valuable and well-crafted accounts of early Dutch voyages, documenting Admiral Jacques L’Hermite’s circumnavigation of the globe from 1623 to 1626. L'Hermite intended to capture the Spanish Silver Fleet and to find a better passage than that of Magellan by which the Dutch could reach the Moluccas from the East.
Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a prominent Flemish engraver and publisher best known for his engravings of the New World. Born in Liege, de Bry hailed from the portion of Flanders then controlled by Spain. The de Brys were a family of jewelers and engravers, and young Theodor was trained in those artisanal trades.
As a Lutheran, however, his life and livelihood were threatened when the Spanish Inquisition cracked down on non-Catholics. De Bry was banished and his goods seized in 1570. He fled to Strasbourg, where he studied under the Huguenot engraver Etienne Delaune. He also traveled to Antwerp, London, and Frankfurt, where he settled with his family.
In 1590, de Bry began to publish his Les Grands Voyages, which would eventually stretch to thirty volumes released by de Bry and his two sons. The volumes contained not only important engraved images of the New World, the first many had seen of the geographic novelties, but also several important maps. He also published a collection focused on India Orientalis. Les Grands Voyages was published in German, Latin, French, and English, extending de Bry’s fame and his view of the New World.
![[ Patagonia / Chile / Argentina ] A New Map of the Southern Parts of America taken from Manuscript Maps made in the Country and a Survey of the Eastern Coast made by Order of the King of Spain.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/100772.jpg)
![Segundo Plano de Varios Puertos Del Estrecho de Magallanes, Levantados El Ano De 1786 [Second Plan of Various Ports of the Strait of Magellan, Surveyed in the Year 1786.]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/92297.jpg)