Maps
1450 The Maps of Greek Islands
2012 SOLD 1.76 M$ including premium
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 at Christie's in New York 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.
This book is estimated $ 800K. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two exceptional manuscripts, from the same collection, were featured in this sale.
The Buondelmonti, subject of this discussion, was sold for $ 1.76 million including premium.
Made in the following century and more artistic, the Agnese was sold for $ 2.77M including premium.
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 at Christie's in New York 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.
This book is estimated $ 800K. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
Two exceptional manuscripts, from the same collection, were featured in this sale.
The Buondelmonti, subject of this discussion, was sold for $ 1.76 million including premium.
Made in the following century and more artistic, the Agnese was sold for $ 2.77M including premium.
1477 Ptolemy's Cosmographia
2006 SOLD for £ 2.14M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
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 Cartographia with in period hand-coloring and binding for £ 2.14M including premium, 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. In 1482 the Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia is the first modern atlas, integrating the maps of Nicolaus.
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 Cartographia with in period hand-coloring and binding for £ 2.14M including premium, 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. In 1482 the Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia is the first modern atlas, integrating the maps of Nicolaus.
1546 The Agnese Atlas
2012 SOLD for $ 2.77M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
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 including premium over 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 including premium over 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 including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
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 including premium by Sotheby's on October 18, 2005, lot 143 (image not available).
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 including premium by Sotheby's on October 18, 2005, lot 143 (image not available).
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.
1600 The Ottoman Expansion in Mediterranea
2009 SOLD 1.07 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
During the century that followed the death of Suleiman in 1566 of our calendar, the Ottoman Empire dominates three-quarters of the Mediterranean sea. The expansion and decline of the Empire are dramatically illustrated by the dynamic map in the right column of the Ottoman Empire article of the Wikipedia.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells 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.
The rarity of the map and its sharp details justify an estimate of £ 300 K.
POST SALE COMMENT
This lot was exceptional. Same comment for the realized price: £ 1.07 million including premium.
During the century that followed the death of Suleiman in 1566 of our calendar, the Ottoman Empire dominates three-quarters of the Mediterranean sea. The expansion and decline of the Empire are dramatically illustrated by the dynamic map in the right column of the Ottoman Empire article of the Wikipedia.
On October 6 in London, Christie's sells 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.
The rarity of the map and its sharp details justify an estimate of £ 300 K.
POST SALE COMMENT
This lot was exceptional. Same comment for the realized price: £ 1.07 million including premium.
1784 The Map of Abel Buell
2010 SOLD for $ 2.1M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
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 including premium, 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 including premium, 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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Mappa by BOETTI
1
1978
2021 SOLD for £ 3.04M by Sotheby's
Artist in the abstract and lettrist styles, Alighiero Boetti wanted to express the globalization of time and space. The name of this universal minded Italian could be a pseudonym in tribute to Dante and Boethius, his two famous compatriots from ancient times. Not at all : it was his real name, sometimes used as Alighiero e Boetti.
In addition to his personal work, he managed from 1971 a fertile idea in the follow of his hippy trek in Asia, He chose then as a theme the Mappa, the map of the Earth, which he made tirelessly woven by Afghan or Pakistani hand weavers.
The design is fixed : they are the continents. The choice of colors of earth and sea is made by the craftsman, along with his possible selection of a text for the border. The flags of the nations are embroidered at the place of their geographic location.
An embroidery on canvas 179 x 220 cm executed in 1978 was sold for £ 3.04M from a lower estimate of £ 1.8M by Sotheby's on October 14, 2021, lot 10. Its vibrant colors include a rich blue sea and deep red continents centered by the dazzling hammer and sickle of the USSR.
In addition to his personal work, he managed from 1971 a fertile idea in the follow of his hippy trek in Asia, He chose then as a theme the Mappa, the map of the Earth, which he made tirelessly woven by Afghan or Pakistani hand weavers.
The design is fixed : they are the continents. The choice of colors of earth and sea is made by the craftsman, along with his possible selection of a text for the border. The flags of the nations are embroidered at the place of their geographic location.
An embroidery on canvas 179 x 220 cm executed in 1978 was sold for £ 3.04M from a lower estimate of £ 1.8M by Sotheby's on October 14, 2021, lot 10. Its vibrant colors include a rich blue sea and deep red continents centered by the dazzling hammer and sickle of the USSR.
2
1984
2010 SOLD for £ 880K by Sotheby's
On June 28, 2010, Sotheby's sold for £ 880K a Boetti Mappa 114 x 167 cm woven in Kabul in 1984.
3
1989
2021 SOLD for £ 2.3M by Christie's
In the later 1980s, Boetti's colors of the Mappe converge to blue seas, which effectively offer a nice contrast with the other colors.
A 128 x 230 cm embroidery on linen executed in Tagur, Afghanistan, was sold for £ 2.3M from a lower estimate of £ 1.2M by Christie's on October 15, 2021, lot 17. Oceans are cyan.
It is dated 1360 AH matching 1988-1989 and bears on the border among other inscriptions a motto of the artist revealing his desire to control the time despite the unstable contours of the political countries : a tempo, in tempo, con tempo, il temporale.
Another inscription regrets the recent history of the beautiful Afghanistan which was had been no more accessible to his business for a few years after the 1984 Soviet invasion. The flags keep their 1988 figures, before the November 1989 fall of the Berlin wall that will mark the termination of Boetti's Mappe.
A 128 x 230 cm embroidery on linen executed in Tagur, Afghanistan, was sold for £ 2.3M from a lower estimate of £ 1.2M by Christie's on October 15, 2021, lot 17. Oceans are cyan.
It is dated 1360 AH matching 1988-1989 and bears on the border among other inscriptions a motto of the artist revealing his desire to control the time despite the unstable contours of the political countries : a tempo, in tempo, con tempo, il temporale.
Another inscription regrets the recent history of the beautiful Afghanistan which was had been no more accessible to his business for a few years after the 1984 Soviet invasion. The flags keep their 1988 figures, before the November 1989 fall of the Berlin wall that will mark the termination of Boetti's Mappe.
4
1989
2010 SOLD for £ 1.83M by Christie's
A 116 x 217 cm example was sold for £ 1.83M from a lower estimate of £ 900K by Christie's on June 30, 2010. Its very dark blue oceans distinguishes it from the other copies. It is adorned with a quote from Sa'di on the one essence of the human race, in Farsi.
