Lot 122: A desirable early issue of Hondius map of Virginia and Florida

[MAP-NORTH AMERICA]

MERCATOR, GERARD and HONDIUS, JOCODUS. Virginiae item et Floridae Americae Provinciarum, nova descriptio. [Amsterdam: Jodocus Hondius, 1607 or later]. Hand-colored engraved map. With Latin text on verso, paginated 349/350, with signature mark Qqqqqqq. Neat lines 13 1/2 x 19 1/8 inches (34.5 x 48.5 cm), with wide margins. Repairs to center fold and corners.

This map is "a composite largely of John White's Virginia and Jacques le Moyne's Florida as interpreted by Theodore de Bry in 1590 and 1591 respectively. Chesepioock Sinus representing Chesapeake Bay is still shown in its White delineation. At the end of this year, 1606, a party of Englishmen left England to begin arguably the most important colonization of North America in this very bay, at Jamestown. Within just a few years the entire region would be completely revised cartographically... The map is embellished with various game including a wild turkey. Examples of Indian villages in Florida and Virginia appear in cartouches either side of the title. The map's scale and decorativeness make it very sought after..." (Burden). This is an early and scarce issue, identified by the signature mark and pagination on the verso, identified by Burden as published in 1607 and 1608 in Mercator's Atlas Sive Cosmographicae. Burden 151.