Sign In

Password

- Or use -

Forgot Password Create Account

Checkout

This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.

Stock# 78746

Download Small Image

Map Maker

Frederick De Wit / Pierre Mortier

Title

Regni et Insulae Siciliae Typus Correctissimus ex Auctoribus et Relationibus Novissimis excerptus per F. de Wit.

Publication Place / Date

Amsterdam / 1680 (1709)

Image Dimensions

23 x 19.5 inches

Color

Hand Colored

Condition

Good

Stock# 78746

SOLD

Request Info Download Hi-Res Image File - $29.95

Sell Us a Map

Add to Wishlist

Email a Friend

Buy Hi-Res Download

Map Maker

Authenticity Guarantee

Map Maker

Fast, Global Shipping

Description

Decorative example of this striking map of Sicily, first published by Frederick De Wit in 1680 and later re-issued by Mortier beginning in 1709.

The map includes inset maps of Milazzo, Palermo and Catania and a view of Trapani and view of Messina.

The cartouche includes and elaborate image of Mount Aetna.

Condition Description

The map is repaired in a number of places, including some loss at the top center and the bottom center margin and some abrading, repairs and minor loss of image primarily near the centerfold. Backed with a thin layer of cardstock.

Frederick De Wit Biography

De Wit (1629 ca.-1706) was a mapmaker and mapseller who was born in Gouda but who worked and died in Amsterdam. He moved to the city in 1648, where he opened a printing operation under the name of The Three Crabs; later, he changed the name of his shop to The White Chart. From the 1660s onward, he published atlases with a variety of maps; he is best known for these atlases and his Dutch town maps. After Frederik’s death in 1706, his wife Maria ran the shop for four years before selling it. Their son, Franciscus, was a stockfish merchant and had no interest in the map shop. At the auction to liquidate the de Wit stock, most of the plates went to Pieter Mortier, whose firm eventually became Covens & Mortier, one of the biggest cartography houses of the eighteenth century.

Pierre Mortier Biography

Pierre, or Pieter, Mortier (1661-1711) was a Dutch engraver, son of a French refugee. He was born in Leiden. In 1690 he was granted a privilege to publish French maps in Dutch lands. In 1693 he released the first and accompanying volume of the Neptune Francois. The third followed in 1700. His son, Cornelis (1699-1783), would partner with Johannes Covens I, creating one of the most important map publishing companies of the eighteenth century.