QUADT'S RARE 1608 ATLAS WITH 87 DOUBLE-PAGE ENGRAVED MAPS

COMPLETE COPY OF QUADT'S RARE 1608 ATLAST WITH 87 DOUBLE-PAGE ENGRAVED MAPS

QUADT, Matthias (1557-1613). Fasciculus geographicus complectens praecipuarum totius orbis regionum tabulas circiter centum, una cum earundem enarrationibus. Cologne: Johann Bussemecher, 1608. Folio, 27 cm x 19 cm. Contemporary vellum. Third and final edition of Matthias Quadt's printed atlas.

Title within engraved architectural border, engraved arms of Herman Kran above printed dedication, 87 double-page engraved maps (including an anemographic diagram) engraved by Johann Bussemecher, Heinrich Nagel or Matthias Quadt, many incorporating portrait vignettes, mounted on guards; Latin text on verso.

This rare edition is the augmented version of Quadt's earlier atlas, the Geographisch Handbuch (1600), which contained 82 maps, as well as his Europae totius terrarum orbis partis praestantissimae (1596) which contained 67 maps. Six of the maps in this atlas relate to the Americas and Australia/Antarctic.

Quadt's world map derives from Mercator's planispheric map of 1569, with the addition of the figure of Christ and a quote from Cicero at the bottom. South America includes the large western bulge, as shown in contemporary maps by Mercator and Ortelius. The mythical islands of Groclant, Thule, Frischlant and S. Brandam appear near Greenland. Large Terra Australis Incognita at the bottom of the map, predating the voyages of Le Maire and Schouten which identified the route around Cape Horn--with only the Straits of Magellan showing.

Quadt's work, along with that of Braun and Hogenberg, as well as Vopel, raised the reputation of Cologne as a pre-eminent center of cartography.

1. Novi Orbis Pars Borealis Americae, 2. Hispaniae novae, 3. Peruvia id est, 4. Novi Orbis pars 5 Meridionalis a Praestantissima eius in Occidetem Regione sic Appellata. 6. Chica Sive Patagonia et Australis Terra. 7. Polus Arcticus sive Tract, Septentrionalis

Condition: Lightly browned throughout, heavy repairs to the title page and the page with the armorial. Repair along the fold of the world map; India reinforced with paper stripe on the verso side; Germania, splitting along the folds; Moravia, with paper repair in the margin; Sueviae, tears along the fold; Bavaria, with a 3 cm x 1 cm hole; Graeciae, with paper repair in the margin; Moscovia, paper repair to to the corner margin; Hungariae paper to the margi; , Polen, paper repair to the margin; Daniae, paper repair to the margin,; Norway, paper repair to margin, Islandia, small split in along the fold, tiny loss of the margin,; Novo Orbis, tiny repair to margin,; Terra australis, paper repair, on recto.

Single maps of the America's appear to sell anywhere between $1000-4000 in the trade. The last copy at auction made 33.000 GBP in 2006. In spite of its noted defects, a very rare atlas, made rarer by its frequent dismemberment.