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Description

De Jode's rare map of Spain & Portugal.

Fine example of De Jode's rare map of Spain & Portugal, from his Speculum Orbis Terrarum, the second modern world atlas.

The map was engraved by Joannes and Lucas Van Deutecum and includes sea monsters, sailing ships, and an ornate coat of arms.

De Jode's map of the Iberian Peninsula is one of the earliest obtainable maps of Spain, published in the Low Countries. The map gives credit to the Neapolitan Artist and Antiquarian, Pirro Ligorio, as the author of the map. This is undoubtedly a reference to Michele and Franceso Tramezzini's Nova Totius Hispaniae Descriptio, published in Rome in 1559. 

The History of the Modern Mapping of Spain & Portugal

The earliest non-Ptolemaic printed map of Iberia is Berlingheri's Hispania Novella, published in Berlingheri's edition of Ptolemy's Geography. This map was copied in the Ulm (1482), Rome (1507), Waldseemuller (1513), Fries (1522) and Munster (1540) editions of Ptolemy. However, the source for Berlingheri's map has been described by the eminent cartographic scholar Leo Bagrow as unknown.

While a royally commissioned systematic survey of Spain was attempted as early as 1517 by the King of Spain, who commissioned Christopher Columbus' son Fernan Colon to undertake this work as part of a description and cosmography of Spain, no separate map was published as part of this work. The earliest printed map of the Iberian Peninsula, not based upon Berlingheri's map, was published by G.A. Vavassore in Venice in 1532. While the source of Vavassore's map is not known with certainty, it is generally attributed to the work of Vincentus Corsulensis. Matheo Pagano created an early copy of the map, although no example is known to survive. The next map of Iberia was published by Eneo Vico in 1542, a map that was thereafter copied by a number of other publishers in 1544.

The first large format widely disbursed map of Spain was the 4 sheet map created by Giacomo Gastaldi in 1544, Gastaldi's earliest known map. Gastaldi, who was unquestionably the most important map publisher of his time, credited source material received from Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, then serving as Carlos V's Ambassador to Venice, as the source for the map.

A number of other mapmakers drew upon the Corsulensis model. These include the maps of Hieronomus Cock (1553), Paolo Forlani (1560) and Henricus Van Schoel (Camocio), 1602.

Flemish mapmaker Thomas Geminus (then resident in London) published a 4-sheet map of Spain in 1555, the earliest map of Spain published in England. Geminus's map was in turn copied from maps done in Rome in 1559, by Pirro Ligorio (engraved and published by Tramezzini), and a 2 sheet map by Vincenzo Luchini.

The last of the major 16th Spanish maps was compiled by the French Botanist Charles de l'Escluse (Carolus Clusius), whose map was compiled and printed on 6 sheets by Abraham Ortelius in 1570 and later re-issued in Paris in 1606 and 1696. Hessel Gerritsz also created a monumental wall map of Iberia in 1612, which was engraved and printed in 1615.

De Jode's Speculum Orbis Terrarum

One of the great rarities of sixteenth-century mapmaking, the De Jode family's Speculum Orbis Terrarum represents over twenty-five years of work shared between two generations. The work was published in two editions, first by Gerard de Jode in 1578 and then in an expanded edition by his son, Cornelis, in 1593.

The Speculum is the second general atlas of the world, after Ortelius' Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. In Antwerp, in 1570, Ortelius published the first modern atlas; that is, a set of uniform maps with supporting text gathered in book form. Previously, there were other bound map collections, specifically, the Italian Lafreri atlases, but these were sets of maps—not necessarily uniform—selected and bound together on demand. 

The first edition of Gerard De Jode’s atlas was published in Antwerp in 1578. Gerard De Jode (1509-1591) released his atlas in a golden age of Dutch atlas production: Ortelius’ atlas was released in 1570, also in Antwerp; the first town atlas was in 1572, the first pocket atlas in 1577, the first regional atlas in 1579, the first nautical atlas in 1584, and the first historical atlas in 1595. De Jode’s atlas was intended as competition for Ortelius’. Mercator was also preparing an atlas at the time, and corresponded with Ortelius, but it would not appear in full until 1595, a year after Mercator’s death.

Although the Speculum was ready as early as 1573, it was not published until 1578. This is most likely due to Ortelius’ influence and his privilege over atlas production, which expired just before De Jode finally published. The atlas was the result of collaboration between De Jode, the geographer Jan van Schille of Antwerp, German physician Daniel Cellarius, and the etchers Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum. 

Although never as successful as Ortelius’ Theatrum, the Speculum did get republished in a second edition in 1593, two years after De Jode’s death, by Arnold Coninx. After his death, Gerard’s son, Cornelis (1568-1600), and his wife, Paschina, then ran the shop. Unfortunately, Cornelis died young in 1600, aged only 32, and the stock and plates were sold to the publisher Joan Baptista Vrients. Vrients had also recently purchased the plates for Theatrum, giving him a monopoly over Antwerp atlas publication. Vrients acquired the De Jode atlas plates only to suppress them in favor of the Ortelius plates, thus the De Jode atlas maps are quite rare on the market today.

Scholarly and historical comparison between the Speculum and the Theatrum varies. The great cartographers of the late sixteenth- and early seveneenth-centuries, including Montanus, van den Keere, and von Aitzing, used both as sources, and Hondius compared the former work favorably against the latter. Later scholarly review notes less consistency in the cartography in de Jode's work, particularly in some of the Germanic regions, although the craftsmanship of the engraving is highly praised.

Condition Description
Original hand-color, possibly retouched. Crisp, dark impression with wide margins. Restoration and minor reinstatement of paper to centerfold. Small reinstatement of margin below neatline. Reinstatement of paper above coat of arms, with loss of printed crown from former (likely anti-monarchist) removal.
Reference
Imago Mundi II (Tooley - Italian Atlases) #529; Karrow, R.W. (16 c.) 51/9.