The extremely rare FIRST STATE of an unusual, rare map of South America. In 1652 the Vatican’s Propaganda Fide (Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith) commissioned Giovanni Battista Nicolosi (1610-70), a Sicilian priest and geographer, to produce an atlas. This body was set up to promote missionary work around the world.

The result, eight years later, was the very rare ‘Dell’Hercole e Studio Geografico’ which contained maps of the world and the continents, the latter in four sheets each. The maps of Africa and South America place south at the top. This map is largely drawn from the ‘Amerique Meridionale’ by Nicolas Sanson, 1650. ‘R Marannon’ is the name applied to the Amazon whose name is here conflated with upriver of the ‘Orenoquen R.’. The fictional ‘Parime L.’ as is the rich silver mine at ‘Potosy’. Unlike the Sanson, the south coast of Tierra del Fuego is complete. A large inset of the Iberian Peninsula is included in what would otherwise be the South Atlantic emphasising its control over the continent.

There was one further edition of the atlas in Latin entitled ‘Hercules, Siculus sive Studium Geographicum’, 1670-71. It was published shortly after his death by one Joanne Baptista Nicolosi. For this edition this and many other maps received additional placenames. The first edition is the rarer of the two. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Refer Burden (1996) 354; Phillips (1909-) nos. 467 & 482; Tooley (1999-2004).