₱990,000.00
In Stock
In Stock
EXTREMELY RARE copper engraving, on two sheets joined.
A most important chart from ‘Dell’ Arcano del Mare’ [Mystery of the Sea] – one of the six maps that show the Philippines. Published in six huge volumes by Francesco Onofri in Florence. SECOND state 1661: cartouche shows: 2 o L o with manuscript insertion of XVIII underneath in an old hand. The Map stretches from the Arabian Emirates and Persia through the Indian Ocean and Indochina to the Western Philippines: from Batanes Islands, the Northern tip of Luzon, via Manila to the entire Palawan and the West Philippine Sea including several Shoals and the Paracels. Robert Dudley (1574 – 1649), an Englishman, produced this atlas while in exile in Florence. He likely received some of his information directly from his friend Sir Francis Drake and his in-law Thomas Cavendish. Completed in manuscript form in 1636, he laboured for decades before finally releasing the first edition of this work in 1646 when he was 73 years old. Dudley’s atlas is of the utmost importance in the history of European Cartography for several reasons: 1) the first Sea Atlas to cover the entire world (not just Europe). 2) the first atlas to utilize the Mercator Projection on a uniform basis 3) the first to include significant advances in “Great Circle” navigation (shortest circle around the Globe). 4) the first to include winds and currents 5) the first to include magnetic declination. The engraver Lucini took 40 years to prepare and 12 years in seclusion to execute the atlas in a unique Baroque style, using more than 5000 lbs of copper.
in beautifully clean and intact condition – almost impossible to find in such pristine state.
