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Description

Fine Example of Covens & Mortimer's De L'Isle World Map Showcasing European Exploration

Nice example of Covens' and Mortiers' decorative double hemisphere map of the world by De L'Isle.

The map includes pleasant aesthetic details above and between the hemispheres. At top center, arrayed around a coat of arms are four women representing the continents: Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. A ribbon unfurls across the top declaring the title. At the lower center is another cartouche, this one with floral details.

The western hemisphere is dominated by the vast Pacific. The northwest coast of North America is unfinished and California is shown as a peninsula. Farther west, a coastline stretches across the North Pacific. This is labeled as discovered by Juan de Gama on a voyage from China to New Spain.

Juan, the grandson of Vasco de Gama, was a Portuguese navigator who was accused of illegal trading with the Spanish in the East Indies. Gama fled and sailed from Macau to Japan in the later sixteenth century. He then struck out east, across the Pacific, and supposedly saw lands in the North Pacific. These lands were initially shown as small islands on Portuguese charts, but ballooned into a continent-sized landmass in later representations. Several voyagers sought out de Gama's lands, including Matthijs Hendrickszoon Quast in 1639 and Maarten Gerritszoon Vries in 1643—Vries named Terre de la Compagnie, also on this map, during his journey. After this map's publication, Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer in Russian employ, and James Cook would both check the area and find nothing, finally putting to rest the myth of Gamaland.

This is but one of the stories recounted in the names and tracks of voyages on this map. Another highlight in the western hemisphere are the glaciers of Edmund Halley. Halley convinced the British Admiralty to give him a ship, the Paramore, to use as a mobile laboratory for studying magnetic variation. On his second voyage, Halley took the Paramore into the Southern Atlantic. While there, he nearly lost his ship to the soaring icebergs he found there. Halley wrote to Josiah Burchett, Secretary of the Admiralty, on March 30, 1700:

In Lattd: 52 ½ ° and 35 ° west Longitude from London, we fell in with great Islands of Ice, of soe Incredible a hight and Magnitude, that I scarce dare write my thoughts of it, at first we took it for land with chaulky cliffs, and the topp all covered with snow, but we soon found our mistake by standing in with it, and that it was nothing but Ice, though it could not be less then 200 foot high, and one Island at least 5 mile in front, we could not get ground in 140 fadtham. Yet I conceive it was aground, Ice being very little lighter then water and not above an Eight part above the Surface when it swims…

Halley, awed by the size of the icebergs, hypothesized that they must be land, not floating, as ice typically concealed more beneath the surface than above and Halley could not imagine a floating entity so large.

There is also reference to the voyages of Mendaña and Ferdinand de Quiros in search of the Solomon Islands and the great southern continent in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. On his 1605 voyage, Quiros encountered what he called Austrialia de Espiritu Santo, which is actually Vanuatu. This feature is in the eastern hemisphere on this map, near the map’s edge.

The voyage of Schouten and Le Maire is marked, a circumnavigation in 1615-6 that found an alternative route to the Pacific than the Straits of the Magellan. The Dutchmen went instead round Cape Horn. Lesser-known voyages are also noted, including the voyage of Dutchman Lindeman in 1670 that found an island in the Southern Atlantic, here named Isle de Saxembourg. Another voyage, of the St. Louis in 1708, crosses the South Atlantic. It was a French merchant enterprise and was the first ship to cross from Cape Horn to the Cape of Good Hope.

The eastern hemisphere also shows notable discoveries and conjectures. For example, the outline of Japan is connected to Yeco (Hokkaido) and then to Asia.

De L'Isle was well-schooled in the VOC's encounters with the west coast of New Holland. Terre de Wit, recalls Gerrit Frederikszoon de Witt, captain of the Vianen, who sailed in 1628. To the west is Terre d’Endracht. The Endracht was the second recorded European ship to contact Australia (1616). Terre de Leuwin is named for the Leeuwin, whose crew charted some of the southwest coastline in 1622; Flinders would later name Cape Leeuwin, the southwestern most point on the Australian mainland, after the ship. Terre de Nuits is named for Pieter Nuyts, a Dutch navigator who commanded the Gulden Zeepaert along the southern coast in 1627.

The important influence of the voyages of William Dampier around the turn of the eighteenth century are also evident here. He was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. In doing so, he named the island of New Britain, off New Guinea, which is seen here. In Australia, he gave the name Sharks Bay (here Scharksbay). He also provided one of the earliest printed descriptions of Aboriginal peoples in Europe. Unfortunately, it was not a positive description, which is why this note a note about the color of the peoples’ skin is included here.

Tying both hemispheres together is the track of Abel Tasman on his first Pacific voyage of 1642-3. This expedition, funded by the Dutch East India Company, was the first to circumnavigate the whole of the Australasia region, thus proving it was a separate entity unconnected from a mythical, and massive, southern continent. Tasman surveyed the south coast of Tasmania, which he called Van Diemens Land after the VOC governor of Batavia, and the western coast of New Zealand, as well as the Tonga and Fiji Archipelagos.

Condition Description
Minor soiling in upper margin and minor fold split, just affecting printed image.
Reference
KAP
Johannes Covens Biography

Johannes Covens (1697-1774) was a Dutch geographic publisher based in Amsterdam. He is best known for his collaboration with fellow publisher Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783). Pierre Mortier the Elder (1661-1711) had obtained a privilege in 1690 to distribute the works of French geographers in the Netherlands. After his widow continued the business for several years, Cornelis took over in 1719.

In 1721, Mortier forged a partnership with Covens, who had recently married Cornelis’ sister. They published under the joint name of Covens & Mortier. In 1774, upon the death of his father, Johannes Covens II (1722-1794) took over his father’s share. In 1778, the company changed its name to J. Covens & Zoon, or J. Covens & son.

Covens II’s son, Cornelis (1764-1825), later inherited the business and brought Petrus Mortier IV back into the fold. Petrus was the great-grandson of Petrus Mortier I. From 1794, the business was called Mortier, Covens & Zoon, or Mortier, Covens, & Son.

The business specialized in publishing French geographers including Deslisle, Jaillot, and Sanson. They also published atlases, for example a 1725 reissue of Frederik de Wit’s Atlas Major and an atlas, with additions, from the works of Guillaume Delisle. There were also Covens & Mortier pocket atlases and town atlases. The company profited from acquiring plates from other geographers as well. For example, the purchased Pieter van der Aa’s plates in 1730. Finally, they also compiled a few maps in house. At their height, they had the largest collection of geographic prints ever assembled in Amsterdam.

Cornelis Mortier Biography

Cornelis Mortier (1699-1783) was a Dutch publisher who specialized in geography. Cornelis’ father, Pierre Mortier the Elder (1661-1711), had obtained a privilege in 1690 to distribute the works of French geographers in the Netherlands. After his widow continued the business for several years, Cornelis took over in 1719.

In 1721, Mortier forged a partnership with Johannes Covens, who had recently married Cornelis’ sister. They published under the joint name of Covens & Mortier. Their firm was one of the largest and most successful in Dutch history and continued in business until the late-nineteenth century.

In 1774, upon the death of his father, Johannes Covens II (1722-1794) took over his father’s share. In 1778, the company changed its name to J. Covens & Zoon, or J. Covens & Son. Covens II’s son, Cornelis (1764-1825), later inherited the business and brought Petrus Mortier IV back into the fold. Petrus was the great-grandson of Petrus Mortier I. From 1794, the business was called Mortier, Covens & Zoon, or Mortier, Covens, & Son.

The business specialized in publishing French geographers including Deslisle, Jaillot, and Sanson. They also published atlases, for example a 1725 reissue of Frederik de Wit’s Atlas Major and an atlas, with additions, from the works of Guillaume Delisle. There were also Covens & Mortier pocket atlases and town atlases. The company profited from acquiring plates from other geographers as well. For example, the purchased Pieter van der Aa’s plates in 1730. Finally, they also compiled a few maps in house. At their height, they had the largest collection of geographic prints ever assembled in Amsterdam.