An important map of South America by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1559-1625) from one of the rarest editions by Levinius Hulsius. “In 1601 Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas published the first four parts of his ‘Historia General’. It is usually bound in two volumes; at the end of the second is often found the ‘Descripción de las Indias Occidentalis’ containing fourteen maps of Spanish possessions, largely in America … Herrera was the official historian of Castile and the Indies to Philip II of Spain. Considering the dearth of Spanish publications on the New World, particularly cartographic, it is noteworthy that this book had official backing. It details the early exploration of the New World by the Spanish and assembles many documents lost to us today.” (Burden).

The map is largely derived from the manuscript charts of Juan López de Velasco (1530-98), from c.1575-80. It offers a simple outline of the continent displaying only the Amazon and ‘R. de plata’. It omits Tierra del Fuego and the rounding of Cape Horn by Jacob Le Maire and Cornelis Schouten in 1615-17. The results of the discovery were not officially published until 1622, the year before this work. The map depicts the Papal line of demarcation dividing the world between Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence. Being Spanish in origin this map naturally favours that country by reducing the amount of Brazilian territory under Portuguese influence. The eighteenth part of Levinus Hulsius’ large work on the voyages to America was an issue devoted to the work of Herrera. The maps are reductions drawn from entirely new copperplates. This is of higher overall quality than its rival serial publication by Theodore de Bry. It is arguably the rarest of all the Herrera cartographically illustrated editions. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Burden (1996) 140 & 204; Church (1907) no. 310/ Sabin (1868) no. 33671; Rada (2004) pp. 54-5.