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Lot 49

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BRY, Theodor de (1561-1623) -- Jacques LE MOYNE Fl

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Frankfurt: 1591 [or later]. Engraved map of Cuba, the Bahamas and the North American coastline from Louisiana and Florida to "Prom Terra flag" or, as it is known today, Cape Lookout near Beaufort, North Carolina. Elaborately drawn with numerous rivers, mountains, forests and lakes. Enwreathed Arms of the Kingdoms of Spain and France at upper left and right corners.,title inset in decorated title cartouche, scalebar at lower right corner set in cartouche surmounted by dividers, the seas engraved in elaborate wave patterns and decorated with an elaborate compass rose, 2 gallions and a sea monster, verso blank. In window mount. Condition: outer margins trimmed with loss to small section of border, small restoration to tears at margin head. Acquisition: William Reese Company through a German auction (1993), $3,400. one of the earliest and most influential maps of the american southeast. Engraved by de Bry for the second volume of his Grand Voyages, first published in 1591. There were further editions in Latin (c.1609 and c.1634) and German (1603), but only one state of the map is known. The prominent French artist, Jacques Le Moyne, had accompanied Laudonniere on the second French attempt for colonization. The expedition, which set forth in 1564, landed and set up a settlement along the F. Maij (River May or St. John's River) which Laudonniere named Carolina. Le Moyne was commissioned to record and map as much of the region as possible. About twenty years later, Jacques De Bry was in the process of assembling his multivolume Grand Voyages and required the supporting material. De Bry first attempted to obtain information from Le Moyne in London in 1587, but Le Moyne, who was then working for Sir Walter Raleigh, refused to part with them. After Le Moyne's death in 1588, De Bry acquired his papers and journals from Le Moyne's widow and published them in 1591. The original manuscript map has not survived but there is one watercolor version in the New York Public Library. Despite the fact that this map contains errors its influence was considerable. The map was a landmark for the region, containing significant new information mainly derived from Indian sources and not the French settlers in the region alone. On it is the first mention of Port Royal on any map and is, along with Prom. Canaueral (Cape Canaveral), the only two sites in Florida to retain their French names through the following centuries of Spanish and English dominance. This map also names numerous American Indian villages and tribes throughout. One in particular, located near a mysterious waterfall is named Apalatci, with a note above it that reads "Montes Apalactci" making this the first cartographic representation of the appalachian mountains. Alexander (1976) pp. 12-59; Burden 79; Church (1907) nos. 145-7 & 179-80; Cumming (1938) pp.476-92 and (1962) 14; Faupel (1990) pp.33-6; Fite and Freeman (1926) pp.68-70; Garratt G 2 (in: The Map Collector 1979, 9); Goss 16; Lorant (1946) pp.4-199.

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