A map of the American continent derived from that by Jodocus Hondius’ of 1618 by Mattheus Merian (1593-1650). Merian was a leading German illustrator of the 17th century. Born in Basel in 1593, he learned the art of copperplate engraving in Zurich and subsequently worked and studied in Strasbourg, Nancy, Paris, and the Low Countries. In 1618 he went to Frankfurt, where, in 1618, he married the eldest daughter of Johann Theodor de Bry, publisher and engraver and son of Theodore de Bry. After de Bry died in 1623, he took over his business. De Bry’s business remained in Merian’s family until 1726 when a fire destroyed it.

This map was engraved for inclusion in Johann Ludwig Gottfried’s ‘Newe Welt und Americanische Historien’ published in Frankfurt, 1631. The work is a compilation of the various voyages published by Theodore de Bry. The printer was Matheus Merian. It depicts Tierra del Fuego was an island following the results of the voyage of Jacob le Maire and Willem Cornelisz Schouten’s voyage around Cape Horn in 1617. In North America it records Virginia; not that of John Smith in present day Virginia but Raleigh’s earlier colonising attempt at Roanoke. Insets of both polar regions are a feature taken from the Willem Blaeu wall map of 1608. Provenance: private collection of Juan and Peggy Rada. Borba de Moraes (1958) vol. 1, pp. 311-13; Burden (1996) 235; Church (1907) no. 174; Garrett (1979) p. 9 G44; The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection (1979) no. 472 (Gottfried); Sabin (1868) nos. 50 (Gottfried) & 8784 (de Bry).