BRUYN, Cornelis de.
Paris: Guillaume Cavelier, 1714. 230 x 630mm. Narrow lateral margins. A panoramic view of ruins at Alexandria, with 'Pompey's Pillar' at the centre. In 1675 the Dutch painter Cornelis de Bruyn (1652-1727) set out from Livorno on a journey through the Levant, visiting Jerusalem, Constantinople, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus. returning in 1684. His account was first published in Dutch in 1698 as 'Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn. door Klein Asia.van Aegypten, Syrien en Palestina'. This example comes from a French edition, 'Voyage au Levant, c'est-a-dire, dans les principaux endroits de l'Asie Mineure, dans les isles de Chio, Rhodes, & Chypre &c'. On a second tour de Bruyn visited Russia, from where he travelled south to Persia then east to Java.
BRUYN, Cornelis de.
Paris: Guillaume Cavelier, 1714. Two sheets conjoined, total 295 x 1030mm. Narrow lateral margins. A fine engraved panorama of Aleppo in Syria. In 1675 the Dutch painter Cornelis de Bruyn (1652-1727) set out from Livorno on a journey through the Levant, visiting Jerusalem, Constantinople, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus. returning in 1684. His account was first published in Dutch in 1698 as 'Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn. door Klein Asia.van Aegypten, Syrien en Palestina'. This example comes from a French edition, 'Voyage au Levant, c'est-a-dire, dans les principaux endroits de l'Asie Mineure, dans les isles de Chio, Rhodes, & Chypre &c'. On a second tour de Bruyn visited Russia, from where he travelled south to Persia then east to Java.
HONDIUS, Jodocus II.
Amsterdam: Henricus Hondius, 1633, German text edition. Coloured. 380 x 510mm. A superb and detailed map of the British Isles, with three attractive Baroque title cartouches with swags and putti, one holding an inset of the Orkneys, the other two for the scale and title. This map was engraved in 1617 by the son of the Jodocus Hondius who engraved John Speed's county maps. Published separately, it originally had borders with ten costume vignettes and fourteen town plans, and is known by only two examples. In 1631 Jodocus's brother Henricus cut the borders off the printing plate so that it would fit into an atlas, adding his name and date, and issuing it in an 'Appendix' that year. This example comes from the next complete edition of the Mercator/Hondius two-volume atlas, 1633. SHIRLEY No. 435; KOEMAN: 1:311.1.
London: The Underground Group, 1933. Colour-printed map on paper, 155 x 255mm, folded twice as issued. The first version of the diagrammatic map of London's tube network, which, despite being eighty years old, would be instantly recognisable to any commuter today. Beck's revolutionary new 'electrical circuit' design dispensed with scale, bearing and surface landmarks other than the Thames, making the stations equidistant and limiting the curves to either 45 or 90º. Beck submitted two proposals to the Publicity manager before his idea was accepted, and was paid only 10 guineas (today £380) for the artwork of this card, and 5 guineas more for the poster. The Publicity Manager knew he was talking a chance with public opinion: the cover text continues 'We should welcome your comments', but his gamble paid off and Beck's innovation has been in use ever since. Although there are new lines and different colours the only significant design change on the map is the use of rings rather than diamonds for interchanges. GARLAND: Mr Beck's Underground Map.
Basle, 1572, Latin edition. Woodcut map, image size 95 x 150mm, set in a page of text with another woodcut, 100 x 135mm. A classic map of Cyprus based on Matteo Pagano, naming Nicosia, Famagosta and Ceraunia. Published in Munster's Cosmography, it is printed on the same sheet as another woodcut showing a stag and sheep. ZACHARAKIS: 1586, illus pl. 328. BAYTON-WILLIAMS: 4, state 4 of 10.
Vienna: F.A. Schraemble, 1788. Original outline colour. Four sheets conjoined, total 1190 x 1460mm. Minor repairs to binding folds. A huge map of India, based on Robert Sayer's four-sheet enlarged version of James Rennell's landmark map of India of 1782, but reintroducing the original's decorative vignette of Britannia receiving a 'Shaster' ('Shastra', a Hindu book of rules). Beginning in 1764, James Rennell (1742-1830) surveyed Bengal for the East India Company under the patronage of Robert Clive & Warren Hastings, with a particular focus on the rivers, so important to trade in the absence of a regular road system, especially in the approaches to Calcutta. After over a decade of work Rennell was forced to retire, having been seriously wounded in 1766, and retired to England, where he started work on his 'atlas'. The quality of his work was such that when it was first published in 1780 (not 1779 as is often quoted because of the date on the maps) it earned him a fellowship of the Royal Society (1781) and the sobriquet 'the father of Indian cartography'.
Paris: Guillaume Cavelier, 1714. 230 x 625mm. Narrow lateral margins. A view of the harbour of Antalya on the southern coast of Turkey. In 1675 the Dutch painter Cornelis de Bruyn (1652-1727) set out from Livorno on a journey through the Levant, visiting Jerusalem, Constantinople, Egypt, Greece and Cyprus. returning in 1684. His account was first published in Dutch in 1698 as 'Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn. door Klein Asia.van Aegypten, Syrien en Palestina'. This example comes from a French edition, 'Voyage au Levant, c'est-a-dire, dans les principaux endroits de l'Asie Mineure, dans les isles de Chio, Rhodes, & Chypre &c'. On a second tour de Bruyn visited Russia, from where he travelled south to Persia then east to Java.
