Lot 148: MERCATOR, Michael (c.1567-1600). America sive India Nova . Duisburg [but Amsterdam: Jodocus Hondius, ?1623]. Double-page hand-coloured engraved map, Latin text on verso, recto of fold repaired at lower margin, more repairs to fold showing on

MERCATOR, Michael (c.1567-1600). America sive India Nova. Duisburg [but Amsterdam: Jodocus Hondius, ?1623]. Double-page hand-coloured engraved map, Latin text on verso, recto of fold repaired at lower margin, more repairs to fold showing on verso, several mounting strips adhering to verso), 436 x 573mm.

THE ONLY PRINTED MAP KNOWN TO BE BY MICHAEL MERCATOR, grandson of Gerard. First issued in Duisburg, 1595, this 'beautifully engraved' hemispherical map on an attractive floral ground was included in Gerard's Atlantis pars altera on its completion by Rumold Mercator. 'A few of the most famous theories are still present: a large inland lake in Canada, two of the four islands of the North Pole, a bulge to the west coast of South America and the large southern continent'. After the sale of the plates of the Mercator atlas to Jodocus Hondius in 1604, the map continued to be issued, side by side with Hondius's own map of America, up to 1639. Burden 87.