Sale 2512 Lot 117

LE MOYNE DE MORGUES, JACQUES. Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens & Exactissima Descriptio. Hand-colored engraved map of southeastern North America, Bahamas and Cuba. 15 1/4x18 3/4 inches sheet size, upper and lower margins skillfully replaced not affecting image; issued folding, now flat with gentle reinforcements to verso. Frankfurt, 1591

Estimate $5,000 - 7,500

An attractive landmark map of the southeast region. Jacques Le Moyne was an accomplished artist who accompanied Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière and a contingent of French Huguenots on a voyage to Florida in 1564 with ambitions to settle there. As such Le Moyne was one of, if not the first European artist active on American soil. The Frenchmen's outpost was attacked and decimated by the Spanish a year after their arrival but Le Moyne managed to survive and returned across the Atlantic to England. The artist stayed in London until his death and at that time Theodore de Bry acquired the collection of drawings Le Moyne produced in Florida from his widow. De Bry subsequently published this map along with engraved illustrations of regional inhabitants in a travel narrative titled "Brevis Narratio Eorum Quae in Florida Americae Provincia".