Beschreibung:

LAET, Johannes de (1593-1649). L'Histoire du noveau monde ou description des Indes occidentals . Leiden: Chez Bonaventure & Abraham Elzevir, 1640.
LAET, Johannes de (1593-1649). L'Histoire du noveau monde ou description des Indes occidentals . Leiden: Chez Bonaventure & Abraham Elzevir, 1640. 2 o (328 x 222 mm). Title printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device. 14 double-page engraved maps and more than 60 woodcut illustrations in text (occasional pale offsetting and browning). (2X2 with short marginal tear repaired, some occasional pale spotting.) 19th-century Spanish tree calf, smooth spine gilt, black morocco lettering piece (some minor rubbing). Provenance : R. Felner (bookplate); Rubens Borba Alves de Moraes, Brazilian bibliographer, historian and translator, author of Bibliographia Brasiliana , b. 1899 (bookplate). "IT IS ARGUABLY THE FINEST [ATLAS] PUBLISHED IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY" (Burden) FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH, this copy with the two-leaf dedication to Richelieu. "After the publication of this work in 1625, Laet kept subsequent editions current by recording events as they occurred. Thus the most complete edition is this French translation of 1640. In it he narrates the sacking of Bahia and the conquest of Olinda, Itamaraca, Parahiba, and Rio Grande do Norte, all of which do not appear in the earlier edition. The maps published in this edition are the most accurate published up to that date. Several of these, such as the maps of North America, New England, and New Holland, were copied and reproduced by many contemporary authors. This edition of 1640 was used as an 'atlas' during the entire second part of the seventeenth century... From a scholarly point of view this French translation is the best edition, and for studies concerning Brazil the additions we have specified above make it an indispensable work" (Borba de Moraes). "For the cartographic work he had much to call on, being a director of the recently formed Dutch West India Company in charge of all Dutch interests in America and Africa. He therefore had access to the latest geographic knowledge. He drew on the fine talents of Hessel Gerritsz the official cartographer to the Company since 1617. Gerritsz attained this post before Willem Blaeu under whom he was apprenticed, and was his senior by ten years. The maps were some of the first to depart from the heavier style of the Mercator and Ortelius period. This more open style of engraving was one that both Blaeu and Janssonius would use in their atlases" (Burden, p.267). The first map, a general one of the continent, shows that Laet, though he had seen maps with California as an island, relied on more trustworthy accounts such as that by Herrera. It is the best delineation of the west coast at that time. Laet similarly backs off from the debate about the Northwest Passage, cutting his map short of these latitudes. Alden & Landis 640/111; Borba de Moraes I:451; Burden 215, 229-232; JCB (3) II:283; Johnson Cleveland 196; Rahir Les Elzevier 492-4; Sabin 38558; Streit II:1682; Vail Frontier 96; Willems Les Elzevier 497.