Very Rare Miniature Atlas - With Nice Old Color
With 18 Maps Relating to the Americas - Including California as an Island
"... one of the smallest maps of Ireland" - Andrew Bonar Law
A remarkable, possibly unrecorded, 18th-century miniature atlas comprising an extensive slideshow-like collection of maps showcasing all the regions of the world. Notably the atlas contains 18 maps relating to the Americas, including a nice example of California as an island. At least two of the maps (map 5 of Spain and Map 34 of Helvetiae pars Prima) are signed by the engraver Gerhard Karsch ("G: Karsch sc."), who may have originally engraved all of the maps in the atlas. While there is no title page present here, we believe this little atlas is a very rare re-issuing of the maps (with text omitted) that originally appeared in a 1702 publication, itself an expanded version of Johann Ulrich Müller's Kurtz-bundige abbildund vorstellung der gantzen welt (Ulm, 1692). Burden illustrates several of the American maps from Müller's 1692 atlas, with cartography nearly identical to maps in our atlas. According to Geoffrey L. King (miniaturemaps.net), the 163 maps from the 1702 atlas were re-issued without the descriptive text originally printed below on each map sheet, thus facilitating a miniature atlas "measuring about 85 x 90 mm." King suggests the miniature atlas, which he calls "a rare item today," could have been published before or after 1702, and was possibly issued by Kühnen: "Its engraved pictorial title-page was printed from the lower half of the original plate, as modified for the 1702 editions. This involved adding ‘Atlas minor sive’ to the pedestal above the title and also replacing the imprint with the words ‘juncta simul Geographia antiqua’."
The printed numbering on the present maps (in Roman numerals, above the neatline), is somewhat erratic, but a consistent enumeration was added in a neat manuscript hand at some early date. Map no. 64 (Marchionatus Moraviæ) is lacking, but all of the others are present.
In addition to the double hemisphere world map, the atlas contains 97 (of 98) maps of Europe, 16 each of Asia and Africa,18 of the Americas, and 14 of the ancient world.
One of the Smallest Maps of Ireland
The map of Ireland (Hibernia), measuring approximately 66 x 79 mm .... stands as one of the smallest maps of Ireland. Andrew Bonar Law notes that Müller's atlas of 1692 depicted Ireland only as a part of the British Isles: "There is an earlier edition of this atlas, 1692 without the Atlas Menor in the engraved title page. This atlas contains Ireland only as part of the British Isles."
The maps relating to America are:
- Double hemisphere world map (Western Hemisphere notes Canada, Mexico, Brasil, R. de la Plata, Lima, Peru, Magellanicu Le Maire, and a detached landmass in the place of Alaska labeled "Iesso")
- Northern Polar region
- Southern Polar region (with Terra Australis)
- America Septentrionalis (with California as an island, S. Augustin in Florida, two "Hudson Bays", NW coast of North America labeled "Terra de Iesso")
- Canada or New France (Terra de Laborator de Cortreal N. Britania)
- Mid-Atlantic coast (Canada and Florida labeled, inset of Bermuda Island)
- Southeastern North America, showing Florida, Gulf of Mexico, parts of present-day Texas)
- New Mexico and California (as an island), showing most of present-day Southwestern United States, with Cibola, Santa Fe, Quivira, and other places identified. Also area of "Apaches."
- Mexico sive Nova Hispania
- Insulae Antilles. Caribbean islands, also showing tip of Florida and northern coast of South America
- American Meridion
- Northern South America
- Guaiana
- Peru
- Pacific coast of South America, present-day Chile. Many places identified, including Valpariso, Juan Fernandez Island, Magellanica Terra.
- Brazil
- Rio de la Plata
- Mare del Paraguay, and Rio de la Plata
- Southern tip of South America (Patagons, Chili, Tucuman, Fr. Magellon, and more)
Rarity
This miniature atlas is of the utmost rarity. No examples appear in either OCLC or RBH.