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Description
ff. 1-181v. [Portolan atlas]. Portuguese. Contains 18 maps, etc.: ff. 25v-26, Black Sea, Anatolia; ff. 28v-29, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf; ff. 31v-32, Southern South America; ff. 34v-35, Northwest South America, Central America, and West Indies; ff. 37v-38, East coast of South America; ff. 40v-41, East coast of North America and West Indies; ff. 43v-44, North coast of South America, east coast of North America and West Indies; ff. 46v-47, Mediterranean and eastern Europe; ff. 49v-50, Northern Atlantic Ocean, European coast, Greenland, Iceland; ff. 52v-53, Northwest Africa, Mediterranean area, southern Europe; ff. 55v-56, South Atlantic Ocean, southern Africa; ff. 58v-59, Southern Africa and southwest Indian Ocean; ff. 61v-62, Arabia, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf; ff. 64v-65, Northern Indian Ocean, India; ff. 67v-68, Southern portion of east coast of Asia, part of East Indies; ff. 70v-71, Northern portion of east coast of Asia, part of East Indies; ff. 73v-74, Western coast of United States and Mexico; ff. 76v-77, Southern portion of west coast of Mexico and Central America. Laid in: Unrelated black ink map of Mexico City and environs, made after 1652, 313 x 430 mm., in Spanish. Title from printed catalog. Support: Paper. Layout: 1⁸(blank leaves) 2¹⁰(blank leaves) 3¹⁰(ff. 19-25 blank) 4-6¹⁰ 7¹⁰(ff. 79-80 and remaining leaves, blank). Single ruled black borders. Other Decoration: Black and red ink for nomenclature in a minuscule script with area names in display scripts; land masses outlined in color, with islands painted blue, green, red, or gold; one compass rose on each chart (except ff. 55v-56, which has none) with usual 32 rhumb line network in black, red, and green ink for the principal directions; a numbered latitude scale on each chart with oblique meridians also on ff. 40v-41 and 49v-50, no longitude; each chart has an unnumbered scale of distance in an elaborate cartouche; highly decorated in colors and gold. Produced ca. 1630. Native paper. The charts are drawn across openings on ff. 25v-77 with folios left blank between charts; ff. 86v-113 have black rhumb lines drawn on alternate openings in preparation for making charts, but these prepared pages have been glued together so only the blank sides show. Maturity of delineation of Japan and detailed knowledge of Asian and East Indian area coupled with Portuguese language suggest map may have been made in Macao about 1630. Assigned Date: s. XVII2/4.
Bound, s. XVII, in limp brown leather, blind tooled. HM 39. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
The notations on f. 180v "De Gaspar Mĩz" [Martínez?], "K" on f. lv and "No 36" written on binding in seventeenth century hands may indicate early owners. Sold in 1863 by Bernard Quaritch to Henry Huth (1815-78). Huth ex libris on inside front cover. Notation "Portolano (5) p. 1171" pencilled on f. 1 indicates The Huth Library (1880) pt. 4, 1171 .
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