Italy:  ITALIA Per Gerardum Mercatorem

Original copperplate engraved map
Fine Handcolor
370 x 465mm
Map #  E-445
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A fine, early map of Italy with Corsica and Sardinia.  The map contains details of numerous cities, towns, and villages in Italy.  A ship and a sea monster are in the ocean to the west of Italy.

Gerard Mercator (1512-1594) was one of the most famous geographers of his time.  He was renowned as a scholar in his day, and his name is known to this day as the inventor of the map projections named after him.  His maps are known for their precise geographic information and for their attention to detail.  All of his maps are finely engraving, mostly by Mercator or by one of his family members.  He worked initially from Leuven, Flanders, but then from Duisberg in Germany.  Around 1563, Mercator became cosmographer to Duke William V of Julich, Kleve.. in Germany.  As the cosmographer, he began the writing of a Cosmography intended to cover, in five volumes, the entire known world.  As Mercator was involved in all aspects of the time-consuming Cosmography, from writing the text, drawing the maps, and engraving the copperplates, the atlas was not finished in his lifetime and only sections were finished and published before his death.  His son, Rumold, along with other family members finished the various parts and published the final product, including previously published parts, as the Atlas Sive Cosmographicae... in 1595.    

In 1589, Gerard Mercator published his section on Italy, including this map, and the surrounding parts of Europe as the Italiae Sclavoniae et Graeciae Tabulae Geographicae.  The map also was used for Mercator's Atlas Sive Cosmographicae... in 1595. 

After the edition of 1595, one further edition of this atlas was published by the Mercator family in Duisberg in 1602 with this same map.  In 1604, the copperplates for the atlas were sold to Jodocus Hondius and Cornelis Claesz.  In 1606, Hondius introduced a completely revised edition of Mercator's atlas, Atlas sive Cosmographicae...... and used this map of Italy from the Mercator plates for inclusion in the atlas, or as it is often called, the Mercator-Hondius atlas.   Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) was the founder of the famous 17th century Dutch map publishing family.  Hondius, along with sons Jodocus II and Henricus and son-in-law Jan Janssonius, was prominent in Dutch cartography and his family competed aggressively with the emerging Blaeu family map business. 

This particular map is from a Latin edition of the Mercator-Hondius atlas of 1613.  On the verso of the map, there are six "e"s and "272-273" with text in Latin describing Italy.

Reference:  Peter van der Krogt. Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 1. 't Goy-Houten: HES Publishers,1997.
There are several recent books about Gerard Mercator that we recommend to increase your enjoyment and understanding of Mercator and his maps:  Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet by Nicholas Crane, and The World of Gerard Mercator by Andrew Taylor. 

Good Condition overall, with a repair to a centerfold separation on the verso and with several marginal separations repaired on the verso.  A strong map impression.