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Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
Laet, Johannes de (1581-1649) Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien door Ionnes de Laet. Tweede druck.
Leiden: Elzeviers, 1630.
Folio, second expanded edition, illustrated with engraved title page, text woodcuts and fourteen double page engraved maps of colonialized land in North, Central, and South America by Hessel Gerritsz [the first edition contained only ten maps); half-title present; bound in full contemporary Dutch parchment over boards, ruled and tooled in blind, 12 3 /8 x 7 1/2 in.
This report from the director of the Dutch West India Company includes eighteen different chapters, each devoted to a region in the Americas, including the West Indies, Canada, Virginia, Florida, Mexico, California, the Gulf of California, New Mexico, South America, Peru, Chile, and Brazil; the coasts of New England and New France are also depicted in maps, along with the Straits of Magellan, Rio de la Plata, Venezuela and more. Laet's Beschrijvinghe is described by Burden in The Mapping of North America, as the finest atlas published in the 17th century. In addition to the masterful maps, De Laet's text is scrupulous and detailed, recounting a compelling history of the "new" world from the point of view of the Dutch West India Company. It was also published in French and Latin.
