BRIGGS HENRY The North part of America Conteyning Newfoundla

Sale 2384 - Lot 21

Price Realized: $ 12,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000

BRIGGS, HENRY. The North part of America Conteyning Newfoundland, new England, Virginia, Florida, new Spaine, and Noua Francia… and upon ye West the large and goodly Iland of California. Double-page engraved map of North America with California as an Island. 335x375 mm, wide margins top and bottom, ample at right and left, blank verso; two small worm tracks, tape stain at top edge around central vertical fold. [London, 1625]

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

A cornerstone map for the Califronia as an Island collector and generally a very important early map for the English colonies in North America.

"Briggs extraordinary map was one of the very first to show California as an island, and it was the most influential in disseminating this misconception." Cohen, Mapping the West, page 36.

"Henry Briggs was a leading mathematician of his day . . . Engraved by Reynold Elstracke, the map contains three legends. Two of these show clear knowledge of the journals of a number of the Northwest Passage explorers. Briggs refers to the various tides found and uses them as evidence that a sea route exists to the South Sea or OCEANUS IAPONICVS. The third begins, 'California somtymes supposed to be a part of ye westerne continent, but scince by a Spanish Charte taken by ye Hollanders it is found to be a goodly Ilande. . . .' recording the Spanish origins of this theory." -- Burden 214.