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Rare enlarged second edition of De Laet's important account of the Americas, with 14 maps

LAET, Johannes de.
Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien ... Tweede druck.

With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations.

With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations.

With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations.

With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations.

With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations.



Leyden, Elzevier, 1630. Folio. Contemporary vellum. With engraved frontispiece, 14 folding engraved maps, and many text illustrations. [28], 622, [17, 1 blank] pp.

Rare enlarged second edition of this important account of the Americas by a director of the Dutch West India Company, Johannes de Laet (1581-1649). As a director of the WIC, Laet was in a good position to have access to information from the great wave of Dutch seafaring in the early part of the 17th century.
Each of the 18 constituent books is devoted to a different region of the New World. The first book treats the West Indies, the second Canada, the third Virginia, the fourth Florida, and the fifth Mexico. The sixth book devotes extensive space to discoveries in California, the Gulf of California, and New Mexico. The remaining books describe the northern coast of South America, Peru, Chile, and Brazil.

The 14 maps are engraved by the famous Hessel Gerritsz., official chart maker of the Dutch East India Company. These maps are the very best of the Americas to appear up to this time of publication (only 10 appeared in the first edition); they illustrate the Western Hemisphere, the Caribbean, New France, New England and Virginia, Florida, Mexico and Central America, Terra Firma (north-western South America), Peru, Chile, far South America, Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata basin, Brazil, Guiana, and Venezuela. The text illustrations are chiefly of biological or botanical specimens, some quite fanciful. Johannes de Laet continued revising this work until his death in 1649, incorporating recent developments in exploration and observation. Most of the maps are prototypes, the first of its kind that saw extensive later use in numerous 17-century atlases.

Some light dampstains; minor soiling; without first free endpaper. Fine copy.
Alden & Landis 30/88; Borba de Moraes, p. 384; JCB II, p. 229; Sabin 38555; Willems 327; cf. Burden, The Mapping of North America 229-231.

Related Subjects: America [Central]  America [North]  America [South]  West Indies 

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