Robert Dudley

Original copperplate printed map: 
two sheets joined:  47.5 x 74 cm.
Map #AFS-068. 
$6,000. 

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"The work is extremely rare and costly so that it is difficult to find the fine copperplate chart of the Cape area which is titled as follows:" [this chart] (Tooley, Guide to Maps of Africa, p. 43). This chart and the other charts were the first to be based on Mercator's projections as corrected by Edward Wright, the first to show prevailing winds  and currents in the main harbors and anchorages, the first to give magnetic declination, and the first sea atlas complied by an Englishman.

This chart shows the entire coast of southern Africa from Angola in the west around the Cape of Good Hope to Mozambique in the east.  The chart contains three inset views of the Cape of Good Hope, False Bay, Cape Agulhas (Agulhas). These insets were intended to assist ships approaching from sea to indentify landmarks and thereby determine location.

The chart is from Dudley's Dell' Arcano Del Mare, di D. Ruberto Dudleo Duca di Nortumbria e Conte di Warwich . . . libri sei . . . In Firenze, Nella Stamperia di Francesco Onofri. 1646.  There was a second edition in 1661.  The Arcano del mare (Mystery of the Sea) was a monumental and totally original task with nearly 150 charts.  In the quantity of charts, it was not surpassed until the French sea atlases of the 18^th century.

Dudley generally ignored the style of charts in use at the time.  He showed lines of latitude and longitude and omitted all compass lines. In doing so, his purpose was more intellectual than practical: techniques for determining longitude at sea were not refined until more than two centuries later.  The charts are based on those by English and other pilots, and it is generally accepted that the work was both scientific and accurate for the time.  For southern Africa, Dudley used manuscript charts, possibly a portolan covering the voyage of John Davis to India in 1601, as well as the maps of southern Africa by Van Linschoten in 1596.

The unique appearance of this chart with its strength and flourishes is distinctively Italian Baroque in style.  This is due to the fine engraving of Antonio Francesco Lucini.  Lucini was born in Florence c. 1610. , Lucini states that he worked on the plates in seclusion for twelve years in an obscure Tuscan village, using up to no less than 5,000 lbs (2,268 kg) of copper.  According to Lucini, the Arcano del Mare took forty years to prepare and twelve to execute. (Sotheby's Catalogue, Wardington Sale, 2005)

Sir Robert Dudley (1573-1649), was the illegitimate or possibly legitimate son of Lord Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I.  Unable to establish his claim to the title of Earl of Leicester, Dudley left England in 1605. Arriving in Florence, Dudley entered the service of Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, as an engineer and naval commander. In 1646, Dudley published Arcano del mare, written in Italian by Dudley himself. The atlas was twelve years in the making, and the main innovation lay in its conception of a world atlas of charts, both general ocean charts and detailed surveys, covering all the rival spheres of European dominion: Spanish, English, French, and Dutch.

Dudley's Arcano del mare is one of the greatest maritime atlases of the world and one of the most complex ever produced.  Dudley's work was the only exception to the total dominance of sea atlas production by the Dutch for nearly a century.

References:  Norwich, Map #245.   Sotheby's Catalogue, Wardington Sale, 2005.  Tooley, Guide to Maps of Africa, p. 43, Map #31.

Very Fine condition.