Item #5947 La Florida. Auctore Hieron. Chiasues. Peruviae Auriferae Regionis Typus… Guastecan Reg. A./ CHIAVES ORTELIUS, H.
The First, Acquirable Map of Florida & the Southeast
The First Edition in a Mint Example
Southeast/ Florida.
[Antwerp, 1584]

La Florida. Auctore Hieron. Chiasues. Peruviae Auriferae Regionis Typus… Guastecan Reg.

14 x 18 inches, Fine hand color; fine condition.

A very fine example of the first edition of this foundational map.  Three maps are displayed on a single sheet, including the first separately printed map of Florida and the Southeast. "One of the half-dozen most important mother-maps of southeastern North America.  This map probably had more influence than any other map in establishing the subsequent conception of Florida as including that part of the present United States from the peninsula of Florida northward to or beyond the Mississippi" (Cumming, p. 12).  Remarkably, the general outline of the Florida peninsula on this map is more accurate than on some maps appearing as late as the early 18th Century. 

It is also surprising that the three maps on this sheet, all by Spanish cartographers, appeared in a generally disseminated atlas, since Spain at the time forbade the publication of maps containing critical geographical information.  More remarkable still is that one of the maps displays Spain's sources of gold in Colombia and of silver in Bolivia.  This is only in part explained by the fact the Low Countries were part of the Spanish Empire at the time.  It is probably more a testimony of Ortelius’s wide array of contacts throughout Europe and his ability to obtain maps not available to others because of these contacts.

Burden 57; Cumming 5; Van der Krogt  9820+9440+9540: 31:031.

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