Ancient Maps
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Travel Incunabula
Chronology : 1460-1479
See also : Travel Incunabula
Chronology : 1460-1479
1450 Liber Insularum Archipelagi
2012 SOLD for $ 1.76M by Christie's
The work of Cristoforo Buondelmonti is admirably typical of the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. This monk born in Florence lived in Greece for many years and traveled the islands. Hellenist, he studied the history and geography of the islands and collected manuscripts for the benefit of the bibliophile Niccolo Niccoli.
Around 1420, Buondelmonti draws a set of maps of this region, including comments judiciously arranged with the drawings, under the title Liber Insularum Archipelagi.
It indicates the monasteries, bridges, springs, ruins, monuments, and even the grave of Homer then located in Chios. This work includes the only known representation of Constantinople before the Ottoman conquest.
Executed about 1450, perhaps in Florence, the copy of the Liber Insularum Archipelagi for sale on April 10, 2012 by Christie's is probably the oldest that has survived. This Latin manuscript especially clean and fresh, size 25 x 16 cm on vellum, is a superb illuminated example, with maps in different colors of lines and washes. The period binding has been restored.
It was sold for $ 1.76M from a lower estimate of $ 800K, lot 155.
Around 1420, Buondelmonti draws a set of maps of this region, including comments judiciously arranged with the drawings, under the title Liber Insularum Archipelagi.
It indicates the monasteries, bridges, springs, ruins, monuments, and even the grave of Homer then located in Chios. This work includes the only known representation of Constantinople before the Ottoman conquest.
Executed about 1450, perhaps in Florence, the copy of the Liber Insularum Archipelagi for sale on April 10, 2012 by Christie's is probably the oldest that has survived. This Latin manuscript especially clean and fresh, size 25 x 16 cm on vellum, is a superb illuminated example, with maps in different colors of lines and washes. The period binding has been restored.
It was sold for $ 1.76M from a lower estimate of $ 800K, lot 155.
1477 Ptolemy's Cosmographia
2006 SOLD for £ 2.14M by Sotheby's
In Greco-Roman antiquity, knowledge was transmitted and enriched by compilers. Chronologically, Ptolemy appears between Pliny the Younger and Galen, in the 2nd century CE. His celestial compilation totaled 1,022 stars grouped into 48 constellations. His geography listed the positions of 8,000 localities. His proposed method for drawing maps was a new algorithm for projecting the sphere onto a flat surface, developed from Euclid.
This monumental work is ignored in the Christian world and rediscovered by astronomers in Baghdad at the beginning of the 9th century. Around 1300 CE the Byzantine scholar Planudes finds a Greek version of the Geography of Ptolemy, which then takes the name of Cosmographia, and reconstructs the maps. A Latin translation of the text in 1406 by Jacobus Angelus is used for the first printed editions.
The 26 maps based on Ptolemy's informations are engraved on copper plates prepared by Taddeo Crivelli. They are published with the text of Jacobus Angelus in Bologna in 1477. Each map occupies a double page 42 x 56 cm overall, which is the prestigious Royal folio format used in particular by Gutenberg in his Bible.
On October 10, 2006, Sotheby's sold a complete copy of the Bologna Cosmographia with in period hand-coloring and binding for £ 2.14M, lot 394. It most certainly belonged to the bibliophile Hieronymus Münzer, who started his collection of printed books in 1476 and was also a keen traveler. This undocumented provenance is made plausible by its later belonging to the humanist Pirckheimer from whom a letter containing a posthumous praise of Münzer is known.
The next step is the integration of the explorers' discoveries. From 1477 Nicolaus Germanus creates a terrestrial and a celestial globe.
Germanus had completed his work in 1482. Without removing the authorship reference to Ptolemy, he edited his maps in Ulm while using the translation by Angelus. The woodcut is a recent technique that significantly improves the diffusion of the maps. For the first time, a map by Germanus is signed by its engraver, Johannes (Schnitzer) in Armsheim. Armsheim is 30 Km away from Mainz, the city where Gutenberg had operated.
The first editor, Lienhart Holle, has no more chance than Gutenberg: he is bankrupted by the magnitude of his work. A copy from his edition was sold for £ 510K by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014.
His experience benefits another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who recovers the undamaged materials and plates of Holle and republishes the Cosmographia without significant change in 1486. The Reger edition consists of 140 leaves of text plus 32 double-page maps.The book meets now the success that it deserved : the printing by Reger is estimated at about 1,000 copies.
The best examples are colored by hand. A 1486 Cosmographia was sold for £ 360K by Sotheby's on April 29, 2014 despite the absence of three sheets of text. Another copy described as splendid in a binding of its time was sold for $ 730K by Christie's on April 3, 2016, lot 8.
This monumental work is ignored in the Christian world and rediscovered by astronomers in Baghdad at the beginning of the 9th century. Around 1300 CE the Byzantine scholar Planudes finds a Greek version of the Geography of Ptolemy, which then takes the name of Cosmographia, and reconstructs the maps. A Latin translation of the text in 1406 by Jacobus Angelus is used for the first printed editions.
The 26 maps based on Ptolemy's informations are engraved on copper plates prepared by Taddeo Crivelli. They are published with the text of Jacobus Angelus in Bologna in 1477. Each map occupies a double page 42 x 56 cm overall, which is the prestigious Royal folio format used in particular by Gutenberg in his Bible.
On October 10, 2006, Sotheby's sold a complete copy of the Bologna Cosmographia with in period hand-coloring and binding for £ 2.14M, lot 394. It most certainly belonged to the bibliophile Hieronymus Münzer, who started his collection of printed books in 1476 and was also a keen traveler. This undocumented provenance is made plausible by its later belonging to the humanist Pirckheimer from whom a letter containing a posthumous praise of Münzer is known.
The next step is the integration of the explorers' discoveries. From 1477 Nicolaus Germanus creates a terrestrial and a celestial globe.
Germanus had completed his work in 1482. Without removing the authorship reference to Ptolemy, he edited his maps in Ulm while using the translation by Angelus. The woodcut is a recent technique that significantly improves the diffusion of the maps. For the first time, a map by Germanus is signed by its engraver, Johannes (Schnitzer) in Armsheim. Armsheim is 30 Km away from Mainz, the city where Gutenberg had operated.
The first editor, Lienhart Holle, has no more chance than Gutenberg: he is bankrupted by the magnitude of his work. A copy from his edition was sold for £ 510K by Sotheby's on November 4, 2014.
His experience benefits another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who recovers the undamaged materials and plates of Holle and republishes the Cosmographia without significant change in 1486. The Reger edition consists of 140 leaves of text plus 32 double-page maps.The book meets now the success that it deserved : the printing by Reger is estimated at about 1,000 copies.
The best examples are colored by hand. A 1486 Cosmographia was sold for £ 360K by Sotheby's on April 29, 2014 despite the absence of three sheets of text. Another copy described as splendid in a binding of its time was sold for $ 730K by Christie's on April 3, 2016, lot 8.
breakthrough
1507 Universalis Cosmographia by Waldseemüller
Library of Congress
Christopher Columbus is back from his first trip in March 1493. Who will own the land still to be discovered ? The new Pope Alexander VI, who is of Spanish origin, rushes : to the west of a meridian 370 leagues off the Cape Verde, everything must belong to Castile. The Portuguese enjoyed an earlier privilege over any land to be evangelized off the coast of Africa.
Sailors from both countries intensify their explorations. This competition is complicated when they appreciate that the division line crosses the New World. Amerigo Vespucci is a double agent who acquires as such the best overall knowledge. In his letter published in 1504 under the title Mundus Novus, he demonstrates that the New World extends so far south that it cannot be Asia. He had so identified the existence of a new continent.
The publication by Vespucci leads to the inadequacy of the maps regularly updated in the wake of Ptolemy to describe the world. Duke René II of Lorraine commissions in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges a team including the cosmographer Ringmann and the printer Waldseemüller to create new maps accompanied by a treatise on geography and to amend Ptolemy.
Waldseemüller publishes this cartography in 1507 in two representations : a wall map in four columns and three rows and a set of twelve adjacent gores to be trimmed by the user and glued on a wooden ball. The booklet is titled Cosmographiae Introductio.
The geographical globe had been invented by Behaim in 1492. Waldseemüller's gores are the first use of printing for such artefact. As for geography his advances are highly significant. Based on information kept confidential because of the rivalry between Castile and Portugal, he inserts for the first time an ocean between the New World and Asia and includes some very specific details such as the protuberance of Florida.
It was now necessary to define a name for this new continent. Columbus had died in the previous year. The new mapping could not have been done without the inputs provided by Vespucci. The team at Saint-Dié coins the new name : America.
There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased privately by the Library of Congress in 2001 for $ 10M.
Three gore sets contemporary to Waldseemüller's editions from 1507 to 1509 are known. Among them a trimmed piece 18 x 34 cm overall was sold for £ 550K by Christie's on June 8, 2005, lot 17.
Sailors from both countries intensify their explorations. This competition is complicated when they appreciate that the division line crosses the New World. Amerigo Vespucci is a double agent who acquires as such the best overall knowledge. In his letter published in 1504 under the title Mundus Novus, he demonstrates that the New World extends so far south that it cannot be Asia. He had so identified the existence of a new continent.
The publication by Vespucci leads to the inadequacy of the maps regularly updated in the wake of Ptolemy to describe the world. Duke René II of Lorraine commissions in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges a team including the cosmographer Ringmann and the printer Waldseemüller to create new maps accompanied by a treatise on geography and to amend Ptolemy.
Waldseemüller publishes this cartography in 1507 in two representations : a wall map in four columns and three rows and a set of twelve adjacent gores to be trimmed by the user and glued on a wooden ball. The booklet is titled Cosmographiae Introductio.
The geographical globe had been invented by Behaim in 1492. Waldseemüller's gores are the first use of printing for such artefact. As for geography his advances are highly significant. Based on information kept confidential because of the rivalry between Castile and Portugal, he inserts for the first time an ocean between the New World and Asia and includes some very specific details such as the protuberance of Florida.
It was now necessary to define a name for this new continent. Columbus had died in the previous year. The new mapping could not have been done without the inputs provided by Vespucci. The team at Saint-Dié coins the new name : America.
There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased privately by the Library of Congress in 2001 for $ 10M.
Three gore sets contemporary to Waldseemüller's editions from 1507 to 1509 are known. Among them a trimmed piece 18 x 34 cm overall was sold for £ 550K by Christie's on June 8, 2005, lot 17.
1546 The Agnese Atlas
2012 SOLD for $ 2.77M by Christie's
The cartographer Battista Agnese produces in Venice handwritten maps to constitute composite atlases, the contents of which vary for different clients.
Although his nautical maps fully use the classic portolan representation, his customers seem to have mostly been sovereign princes and great prelates. For example, he assembled circa 1542 on commission from the Emperor Charles V an atlas for the use of Prince Philip, later Philip II.
Agnese takes great care to integrate the most recent discoveries. When Ulloa observed in 1540 that Baja California was a peninsula and not an island, Agnese immediately applied this information while also including the new place names defined by the explorer. The maps are illuminated with full-cheeked figures of the winds at the four cardinal points and at four or six intermediate points.
On April 10, 2012, Christie's sold an Agnese atlas for $ 2.77M from a lower estimate of $ 800K, lot 159.
This collection, in a binding from the early 18th century, has the very rare characteristic of being considered complete. It consists of 15 bifolium vellum plates 18 x 25 cm with blank reverse, including twelve two-page maps.
The first ten maps are portolans from the three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic and Indian) and the seas, not to forget the Black Sea. The next one is a world map in oval projection which includes the parallels and meridians and the line of Magellan's circumnavigation. The last map displays the North Atlantic in globular projection.
The atlas is not dated but is dedicated to Adolf von Schaumburg during the very short period when he was administrator of the archdiocese of Cologne, in 1546. He was appointed in January 1547 archbishop elector of that city.
Although his nautical maps fully use the classic portolan representation, his customers seem to have mostly been sovereign princes and great prelates. For example, he assembled circa 1542 on commission from the Emperor Charles V an atlas for the use of Prince Philip, later Philip II.
Agnese takes great care to integrate the most recent discoveries. When Ulloa observed in 1540 that Baja California was a peninsula and not an island, Agnese immediately applied this information while also including the new place names defined by the explorer. The maps are illuminated with full-cheeked figures of the winds at the four cardinal points and at four or six intermediate points.
On April 10, 2012, Christie's sold an Agnese atlas for $ 2.77M from a lower estimate of $ 800K, lot 159.
This collection, in a binding from the early 18th century, has the very rare characteristic of being considered complete. It consists of 15 bifolium vellum plates 18 x 25 cm with blank reverse, including twelve two-page maps.
The first ten maps are portolans from the three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic and Indian) and the seas, not to forget the Black Sea. The next one is a world map in oval projection which includes the parallels and meridians and the line of Magellan's circumnavigation. The last map displays the North Atlantic in globular projection.
The atlas is not dated but is dedicated to Adolf von Schaumburg during the very short period when he was administrator of the archdiocese of Cologne, in 1546. He was appointed in January 1547 archbishop elector of that city.
1570-1628 The Doria Atlas
2005 SOLD for £ 1.46M by Sotheby's
At the time of the great discoveries, the Cosmography of Ptolemy becomes obsolete. Geographers establish new manuscript maps. Specialized workshops print these documents. Rome provides the maps of Italy and Venice those of the rest of the world.
Unlike the Ptolemy-based compilations, the new maps are sold individually or in composite sets depending on customer needs. The first assembler to mark his name on the front page of a composite set is Lafreri, around 1570. In 1570 in Antwerp, Ortelius finally designs a book with constant content and standardized format. The word Atlas is used for the first time in 1595 for a posthumous edition of Mercator.
The Doria Atlas is a collection in the style of Lafreri, with maps of various origins and formats, the largest of which have been folded several times. It is made of two volumes for a total of 186 maps.
The first volume consists of printed maps, the latest date of which is 1570. The main contributor to the plates is the Venetian Ferrando Bertelli, who may have assembled the whole of this volume. The first map of the first volume, printed by Cimerlinus in 1566, is a reissue of the heart-shaped world map prepared in 1536 by Oronce Fine also known as Orontio. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In the second volume the maps apply mainly to the commercial, military and political interests of the Doria family and to the French religious wars. One of the latest is a bird's-eye view of the Siege of Mantua in 1628. Several maps are manuscript.
This atlas has long belonged to the Doria family. It is assumed that the first volume was assembled for the use of the Genoese Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria, grandnephew and adopted son of the condottiere Andrea Doria.
The Doria Atlas was sold for £ 1.46M by Sotheby's on October 18, 2005, lot 143.
A copy of the Cimerlinus world map was sold by Arader Galleries for $ 310K before fees on January 25, 2020, lot 150 here linked on LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
Unlike the Ptolemy-based compilations, the new maps are sold individually or in composite sets depending on customer needs. The first assembler to mark his name on the front page of a composite set is Lafreri, around 1570. In 1570 in Antwerp, Ortelius finally designs a book with constant content and standardized format. The word Atlas is used for the first time in 1595 for a posthumous edition of Mercator.
The Doria Atlas is a collection in the style of Lafreri, with maps of various origins and formats, the largest of which have been folded several times. It is made of two volumes for a total of 186 maps.
The first volume consists of printed maps, the latest date of which is 1570. The main contributor to the plates is the Venetian Ferrando Bertelli, who may have assembled the whole of this volume. The first map of the first volume, printed by Cimerlinus in 1566, is a reissue of the heart-shaped world map prepared in 1536 by Oronce Fine also known as Orontio. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
In the second volume the maps apply mainly to the commercial, military and political interests of the Doria family and to the French religious wars. One of the latest is a bird's-eye view of the Siege of Mantua in 1628. Several maps are manuscript.
This atlas has long belonged to the Doria family. It is assumed that the first volume was assembled for the use of the Genoese Admiral Giovanni Andrea Doria, grandnephew and adopted son of the condottiere Andrea Doria.
The Doria Atlas was sold for £ 1.46M by Sotheby's on October 18, 2005, lot 143.
A copy of the Cimerlinus world map was sold by Arader Galleries for $ 310K before fees on January 25, 2020, lot 150 here linked on LiveAuctioneers bidding platform.
1595 and 1584 Mercator
2022 SOLD for £ 880K by Christie's
Gerardus Mercator was a successful maker of globes and of scientific instruments. Also an engraver, he printed the gores for his globes. His world map of 1569 is a breakthrough by his projection increasing the scale with the latitude so that a course of constant direction at sea is represented by a straight line.
Also a polygraph, he was managing a project of Cosmographia describing the whole Universe including the creation of the world, the astronomy and astrology, the modern geography, the geography of Ptolemy edited by him in 1578, the genealogy and history of the states and the chronology.
From 1585 Mercator passed the production of maps and globes to his sons and grandsons and began preparing a collection of maps for which he took as spiritual model a mythical king of Mauretania named Atlas notable for his erudition, humaneness, and wisdom. The project was interrupted by his old age after two sets, of 51 maps in 1585 and 23 maps in 1587.
When Gerardus died in 1594, his project was far from being finished, with no map from Spain and no detailed map for outside Europe. His son Rumold Mercator published in 1595 the first Atlas, properly the posthumous cosmographical meditations of his father upon the creation of the universe. It is illustrated from copperplates by 102 maps by Gerardus including those from the previous two collections and by 5 additional introductory maps including Rumold’s double-hemisphere world map.
On December 14, 2022, Christie's sold at lot 128 for £ 880K from a lower estimate of £ 300K an Atlas followed by the second edition from 1584 of Mercator's Ptolemaeus, bound around 1700 in one volume 40 x 28 cm.
The Atlas is complete of its 107 maps collected from previous stocks. The Ptolemy is complete of its 28 maps. All the maps were finely hand colored in period. The book is in very fine condition.
Also a polygraph, he was managing a project of Cosmographia describing the whole Universe including the creation of the world, the astronomy and astrology, the modern geography, the geography of Ptolemy edited by him in 1578, the genealogy and history of the states and the chronology.
From 1585 Mercator passed the production of maps and globes to his sons and grandsons and began preparing a collection of maps for which he took as spiritual model a mythical king of Mauretania named Atlas notable for his erudition, humaneness, and wisdom. The project was interrupted by his old age after two sets, of 51 maps in 1585 and 23 maps in 1587.
When Gerardus died in 1594, his project was far from being finished, with no map from Spain and no detailed map for outside Europe. His son Rumold Mercator published in 1595 the first Atlas, properly the posthumous cosmographical meditations of his father upon the creation of the universe. It is illustrated from copperplates by 102 maps by Gerardus including those from the previous two collections and by 5 additional introductory maps including Rumold’s double-hemisphere world map.
On December 14, 2022, Christie's sold at lot 128 for £ 880K from a lower estimate of £ 300K an Atlas followed by the second edition from 1584 of Mercator's Ptolemaeus, bound around 1700 in one volume 40 x 28 cm.
The Atlas is complete of its 107 maps collected from previous stocks. The Ptolemy is complete of its 28 maps. All the maps were finely hand colored in period. The book is in very fine condition.
1600 Ottoman Map of the Mediterranea
2009 SOLD for £ 1.07M by Christie's
During the century that followed the death of Suleiman in 1566 of our calendar, the Ottoman Empire dominates three-quarters of the Mediterranean sea.
On October 6, 2009, Christie's sold for £ 1.07M from a lower estimate of £ 300K an Ottoman maritime map of the Mediterranea. To the delight of historians, it is easy to date maps with reference to the evolution of place names and the creation of new suburbs. It was made around 1600 in our calendar.
It is now composed of two parts separately framed, 118 x 128 cm for the West and 120 x 133 cm for the East. The ink drawing is very sharp and the geographical quality is comparable to the best Western maps of that time, or even better.
The Battle of Lepanto (1571) warned the Turks about the difficulty to maintain their naval supremacy. Some coastal details lead to consider that it was a military document for the use of an admiral to prepare for a naval campaign, and not just a navigation map. Because of its large size, consultation could be on wall.
On October 6, 2009, Christie's sold for £ 1.07M from a lower estimate of £ 300K an Ottoman maritime map of the Mediterranea. To the delight of historians, it is easy to date maps with reference to the evolution of place names and the creation of new suburbs. It was made around 1600 in our calendar.
It is now composed of two parts separately framed, 118 x 128 cm for the West and 120 x 133 cm for the East. The ink drawing is very sharp and the geographical quality is comparable to the best Western maps of that time, or even better.
The Battle of Lepanto (1571) warned the Turks about the difficulty to maintain their naval supremacy. Some coastal details lead to consider that it was a military document for the use of an admiral to prepare for a naval campaign, and not just a navigation map. Because of its large size, consultation could be on wall.
1613 Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain
2024 SOLD for $ 1.32M by Christie's
An outstanding explorer and cartographer, Champlain was also a naturalist and scientist. Ethnographer, he watched the natives of North America with sympathy. He never ceased to travel, did not lose a single boat, and founded the Nouvelle-France in 1608. He was the first to correctly describe the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes.
Temporarily back in Saint-Malo in 1612 and desiring to get much support for the colony, he prepares the narrative of his ten year travels in America and some maps.
The largest map is 440 x 765 mm. Its title is inscribed in full length at the top of the sheet in old French : "Carte geographique de la Nouvelle Franse faictte par le sieur Champlain Saint Tongois cappitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la marine". It is edited in Paris in 1612.
This map summarizes the direct observations by Samuel de Champlain. It is decorated with some figures, including four Indians in a cartouche. An example was sold for £ 157K by Sotheby's on November 13, 2008, lot 196.
His chronicle, published in Paris in 1613, is titled Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy, en la marine. Divisez en deux livres. Ou, Journal tres-fidele des observations faites és descouvertures de la Nouvelle France. It includes eight folding maps, among them the large example above, and a very early representation of Hudson bay in the quest for the Northern Passage to Cathay.
An example bound in one quarto volume 230 x 183 mm was sold for $ 1.32M from a lower estimate of $ 300K by Christie's on January 17, 2024, lot 4.
Temporarily back in Saint-Malo in 1612 and desiring to get much support for the colony, he prepares the narrative of his ten year travels in America and some maps.
The largest map is 440 x 765 mm. Its title is inscribed in full length at the top of the sheet in old French : "Carte geographique de la Nouvelle Franse faictte par le sieur Champlain Saint Tongois cappitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la marine". It is edited in Paris in 1612.
This map summarizes the direct observations by Samuel de Champlain. It is decorated with some figures, including four Indians in a cartouche. An example was sold for £ 157K by Sotheby's on November 13, 2008, lot 196.
His chronicle, published in Paris in 1613, is titled Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy, en la marine. Divisez en deux livres. Ou, Journal tres-fidele des observations faites és descouvertures de la Nouvelle France. It includes eight folding maps, among them the large example above, and a very early representation of Hudson bay in the quest for the Northern Passage to Cathay.
An example bound in one quarto volume 230 x 183 mm was sold for $ 1.32M from a lower estimate of $ 300K by Christie's on January 17, 2024, lot 4.
1781 Yorktown
2010 SOLD for $ 1.15M by James D. Julia
The arrival of Rochambeau and his troops in America in 1780 was decisive for the independence of that country. The military operations of the French very well coordinated with General Washington led to the defeat of the British at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
A few days after the victory, a French officer sketched a detailed map of the battle. A simplified copy, 35 x 60 cm, of this historic document was given to Washington and was thereafter preserved in the archives of the President's secretary, Colonel Lear. A legend shows the different phases of the siege.
James D. Julia sold on February 5, 2010 a large collection of books, documents and memorabilia from the Colonel. The Yorktown map was sold for $ 1.15M.
A few days after the victory, a French officer sketched a detailed map of the battle. A simplified copy, 35 x 60 cm, of this historic document was given to Washington and was thereafter preserved in the archives of the President's secretary, Colonel Lear. A legend shows the different phases of the siege.
James D. Julia sold on February 5, 2010 a large collection of books, documents and memorabilia from the Colonel. The Yorktown map was sold for $ 1.15M.
1784 The Map of Abel Buell
2010 SOLD for $ 2.1M by Christie's
Abel Buell, a printer and engraver operating in Connecticut, was too skilled and too clever. He was sentenced to jail in 1764 for a counterfeiting of colonial paper money. The sentence is accompanied by a partial removal of one ear and tongue and a mark of infamy on the forehead, which are applied without excess by the executioner due to his young age, 22.
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the War of independence and defined the new external borders. It was ratified on January 14, 1784 by the US Congress and became applicable on May 12.
For Buell, this recognition of the United States is an opportunity. He prints a wall map, in four sheets with vertical joints for a total dimension of 115 x 129 cm, which he announces on March 31, 1784. McMurray's map, which refers to the same treaty, is manuscript and smaller, 67 x 96 cm.
Buell's map is the first map of the United States printed by an American in American land, and one of the very first US documents to receive a copyright. It is titled A New and Correct Map of the United States of North America. The title block includes the thirteen-star US flag.
Buell is not a geographer. His map reuses the work of colonial cartographers. The borders between the thirteen states are not yet fixed, and he takes the opportunity to extend his state, Connecticut, to Mississippi.
This map was only printed in two successive variants, before and after the copyright inscription. The first state is known in a single copy kept at the New York Public Library.
One of the six surviving copies of the second state was sold on December 3, 2010 by Christie's for $ 2.1M, lot 32. It has been hand colored and is one of the best preserved copies despite some misses on the edges of the sheets. The image of this specific copy is shared by Wikimedia.
The purchaser, David M. Rubenstein, entrusted its conservation to the Library of Congress. This philanthropist had bought three years earlier the last copy in private hands of the Magna Carta to lend it to the National Archives
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the War of independence and defined the new external borders. It was ratified on January 14, 1784 by the US Congress and became applicable on May 12.
For Buell, this recognition of the United States is an opportunity. He prints a wall map, in four sheets with vertical joints for a total dimension of 115 x 129 cm, which he announces on March 31, 1784. McMurray's map, which refers to the same treaty, is manuscript and smaller, 67 x 96 cm.
Buell's map is the first map of the United States printed by an American in American land, and one of the very first US documents to receive a copyright. It is titled A New and Correct Map of the United States of North America. The title block includes the thirteen-star US flag.
Buell is not a geographer. His map reuses the work of colonial cartographers. The borders between the thirteen states are not yet fixed, and he takes the opportunity to extend his state, Connecticut, to Mississippi.
This map was only printed in two successive variants, before and after the copyright inscription. The first state is known in a single copy kept at the New York Public Library.
One of the six surviving copies of the second state was sold on December 3, 2010 by Christie's for $ 2.1M, lot 32. It has been hand colored and is one of the best preserved copies despite some misses on the edges of the sheets. The image of this specific copy is shared by Wikimedia.
The purchaser, David M. Rubenstein, entrusted its conservation to the Library of Congress. This philanthropist had bought three years earlier the last copy in private hands of the Magna Carta to lend it to the National Archives
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1795 Upper Mississippi and Missouri
2023 SOLD fir $ 1.74M by Sotheby's
The territory of West Florida, created by the British in 1763, was restituted to Spain after the US revolution, in 1783. The boundaries were not clearly defined, as spectacularly demonstrated in 1784 in the US map of Abel Buell.
The French born 5th baron de Carondelet, a colonel in the Spanish army, is appointed in 1791 governor of Louisiana and West Florida. He manages to defend his territory against the encroachments by US traders and against the French revolution.
For this skirmish conflict, a detailed map is necessary. The accurate map prepared in 1718 by Delisle cannot be used for sketching the new threads. In 1795 Carondelet commissions a map of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri to the French born surveyor Antoine Soulard, the newly appointed first surveyor-general of Spanish Upper Louisiana.
After a prototype sketch which is not currently located, the first finished map is supplied to Carondelet who signs it. No reference to Soulard is made. This political map prepared in Spanish indicates the zones of "Usurpaciones de las Companias Inglesas sobre las Posesiones Espanolas" at the date of 1795.
This manuscript map on Whatman paper 39 x 68 cm in pen and ink with watercolor wash was sold for $ 1.74M by Sotheby's on January 24, 2023, lot 1309.
Three further manuscript examples were made, one in Spanish, one in French and one in English. The Soulard map was a key element in the preparation of the transcontinental expedition of Lewis and Clark started in 1804.
The French born 5th baron de Carondelet, a colonel in the Spanish army, is appointed in 1791 governor of Louisiana and West Florida. He manages to defend his territory against the encroachments by US traders and against the French revolution.
For this skirmish conflict, a detailed map is necessary. The accurate map prepared in 1718 by Delisle cannot be used for sketching the new threads. In 1795 Carondelet commissions a map of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri to the French born surveyor Antoine Soulard, the newly appointed first surveyor-general of Spanish Upper Louisiana.
After a prototype sketch which is not currently located, the first finished map is supplied to Carondelet who signs it. No reference to Soulard is made. This political map prepared in Spanish indicates the zones of "Usurpaciones de las Companias Inglesas sobre las Posesiones Espanolas" at the date of 1795.
This manuscript map on Whatman paper 39 x 68 cm in pen and ink with watercolor wash was sold for $ 1.74M by Sotheby's on January 24, 2023, lot 1309.
Three further manuscript examples were made, one in Spanish, one in French and one in English. The Soulard map was a key element in the preparation of the transcontinental expedition of Lewis and Clark started in 1804.
