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Description

Detailed map of Portugal and the western part of Spain, published by Nicolas De Fer in Paris.

The map is colored by province and regions and shows early roads, towns, rivers, lakes, mountains, castles, and other important features.

Extends north to Vigo and Burgos, east to Madrid and Toledo, and south to Malaga and Gibraltar centered on the Tage and Guadiana Rivers.

Condition Description
Original hand-color in outline.
Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.