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Description

A Recently Discovered Map of America

First state of this extremely rare French map of America, published in Paris by Jacob Honervogt, with an early annotation locating the Falkland Islands (likely late 18th Century).

Burden notes that the existence of this map was unknown until the late 20th Century.  At the time of first publication of Burden's Mapping of North America, Burden was aware of 2 known examples of the map bearing Honervogt's imprint, with his being one of the two known examples. A third example has recently been discovered in the Library of Congress.

Honervogt's map of America is drawn from Peter Van Den Keere's map of America, published in 1614 and is one of a set of 4 maps of the continents.  Honervogt also created a World map which Shirley dates to about 1625, and it is reasonable to speculate that the present map may have been engraved at about this time.

Cartographically, the map draws upon the work of Jodocus Hondius's 1606 map of America, which in turn was based upon a wall map by Petrus Plancius. It retains some of the most fascinating cartographic anomalies of the period, including the bulging east coast of Virginia and pronounced over-dramatic width of North America, extra wide South America, Straits of Anian, Quivira and narrow passage between South America and the Unknown Southern Continent.

Jacob Honervogt's output of maps is extremely limited. For example, the Bibliotheque National de France holds only 1 map by Honervogt, a circa 1630 map of the Roman Empire (Romani Imperii Imago) copied from Ortelius' Parergon in about 1630.  

States of the Map

The map is known in 3 states;

  • 1640: Imprint of Iacques Honervogt (3 known examples according to Burden)
  • 1657:  Gerard Iollain Excudit 1666 (known in 1 example according to Burden)
  • 1666:  Gerard Iollain Excudit 1666 (3 known examples according to Burden)

Rarity

The map is extremely rare.  No example of the map has been recorded at a public sale or in a printed dealer catalog.

Condition Description
Minor soiling. Minor loss of paper in the blank margins at the lower left and right corners.
Reference
Burden 259.
Jacob Honervogt Biography

Honervogt was a German born engraver, who moved to Paris in about 1608.

Honervogt had established a map shop in Paris by 1624.  Sometime after 1654, he took on Gerard Jollain as a partner.  Jollain continued the business after Honervogt's death.