Unusual antique maps at the Book Fair

Traditionally the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair offers more than just books, though, to be sure, it is a book fair and books predominate, the older the better.

But fans of the cartographic arts will find some rare treasures as well. Case in point: the collection of Gary Hudson, proprietor of Antique Atlas. Here is a small sampling of the kinds of unusual examples Hudson will have at the Book Fair.

In 1544, a Franciscan monk named Sebastian Munster published Cosmographia, one of the most successful descriptions of the world ever, and certainly for the 16th century. You can see a map from that book in the slide show above.

This is a rare second edition of the book in its original pig skin binding. It was published in 1545.

Sebastian Munster (1489 - 1552) joined the Franciscan order in 1505 and sent to the monastery in Rufach where he studied Hebrew, Greek, mathematics, cosmography and astronomy. In 1540, he published an edition of Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia. In 1544, he published his major work, the Cosmographia.

The Cosmographia continued to be published long after Munster's death of the plague in 1552 and altogether 46 editions were produced, including issues in German, Latin, Italian and French.

The second picture in the slide show is one sheet of Italian cartographer Antonio Zatta's 12-sheet map of North America.

Zatta produced atlases containing very attractive maps. This set was published in Venice, in 1778. It is titled Le Colonie Unite dell' America Settentrle. Di Nouva Projezione aSS.EE. li Signori Riformatori dello Studio di Padova Venezia 1778 ..."

The 12-sheet unjoined, hand-colored map is based on the landmark map by early Virginia settler John Mitchell (1711-1768), who produced the most comprehensive map of eastern North America made during the colonial era. Each sheet of the Zatta map measures about 12.5 inches x 16.5 inches.

The next two prints in the slide show are by Theodore De Bry, the famous Belgian engraver, who never saw the New World, but produced remarkably detailed illustrations from the first-hand accounts of explorers. These illustrations, produced about 1595, show Florida Indians and the French landing at their first (and failed) attempt at settlement, building Fort Caroline, on the banks of the St. Johns River near present-day Jacksonville.

The last picture above is of the Americas volume from Philippe Vandermaelen, a famous Flemish cartographer.  It was published in Brussels in 1837 as Atlas Universel ..., Vol. IV, Amerique Septentrionale.

It is a complete and overall fine example of Vandermaelen's North American volume [Volume 4 of 6] of his monumental Atlas Universel de Geographie Physique ... " It contains 79 double-page maps. The first map [shown], Carte D'Assemblage de L'Americque Septentle, is the index map showing the layout of all of the uniform scale maps.  Next is the stunning Tableau Provinsiore d'Assemblage ... The next 77 maps are the indexed individual maps and contains many highly desirable hand-colored maps of the continent.

Vandermaelen was the son of a wealthy industrialist who abandoned his father's business to pursue cartography. His goal was to generate the first atlas with every map on the same projection and the same scale, mapping the known world. This is one of the volumes he produced.

If all maps from the six volumes were joined they would form a globe more than 25 feet in diameter. This also is the first lithographic atlas ever produced. Only 810 copies are reported to have been printed, few of which remain intact.

See bookbinder David Barry at the Book Fair

Bookbinder David Barry, who owns Griffin Bookbinding in St. Petersburg, will be at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March. This entry by freelance copywriter Billie Noakes originally appeared on her blog.

By Billie Noakes

The last time I visited my sister, we went through a box that had been stashed in her storage shed for years.

Talk about a time capsule! For a couple of hours, we felt like we were on an archaeological dig, delighting in the discovery of cards, photos, and keepsakes that had belonged to our maternal grandparents.

Lutheran Church Book, 1901. It certainly looked rough.

It was good to see so much family history, sad to see the shape it was in after 45 years of being shuffled from Illinois, to Florida, to Kentucky, and back to Florida. Forty-five years of being top, then bottom, of the heap. Forty-five years of dust and bugs and mice and poorly weatherproofed attics and sheds.

So when we got to one of the last items, we weren’t surprised to see the shape this one old book was in, pages darkened with mildew, leather cover in tatters, disconnected from the pages it was designed to protect.

Here's the same book after David Barry made it beautiful.

Lutheran Church Book. 1901. Grandpa’s name all but buried under 109 years of dirt and grime and neglect. Grandpa would have been 13 years old in 1901, so we’re guessing it was given to him for his confirmation in the Lutheran Church.

Gads, but it looked rough.

Tracie let me bring this relic home, and I called Mike Slicker’s Lighthouse Books. Mike is my go-to resource for all things old-bookish. Mike’s daughter referred me to Griffin Bookbinding, and David Barry.

I was much encouraged by the way David examined it but I expected the man to tell me the book was too badly damaged for any meaningful restoration.

Not so! He said he’d have it back to me in four weeks, at a price that didn’t make me want to die.

He called me two weeks later and said it was ready. Ready? It was beautiful:

I hadn’t realized the pages were gilt-edged. David restitched the pages to the cover, restored the leather, revealed some beautiful tooled engraving, and lo! Grandpa’s name had been printed in gold leaf, not simply pressed into the leather. David even made pages whole that had been eaten away by time and the occasional hungry vermin.

I’m going to debut the book this Sunday, at the Lutheran Church in Starke, when I go back to show my sister David’s wonderful handiwork.

What a treasure!
Hugs and laughter,
Billie

Plan your visit to Florida Antiquarian Book Fair

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At the Book Fair: 1740 Stonehenge first edition

Yeoman's in the Fork is a rare book and document gallery located in historic Leiper's Fork, Tennessee. "The small town bookshop with uptown books" will be exhibiting at the 30th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

One of the more unusual item in the Yoeman's collection is a 1740 first edition of Stonehenge by William Stukeley, M.D. It was published by W. Innys and R. Manby in 1740.

Stukeley is remembered as one of the most important figures in early archaeology.  This is a monumental work about Stonehenge by the man who first pioneered its archaeological investigation.

 The volume has a contemporary calf leather spine with later leather spine exhibiting raised bands and gilt ornamentation and red leather spine label.  It is illustrated with 35 engraved plates, and all of its fold-outs are present.

The volume is in good condition overall, with light foxing inside and some rubbing & scuffing to the boards.

Yeoman’s has a wide variety of rare books, documents, maps, and ephemera. Yeoman’s shares the collector’s passion, along with helping educate those new to collecting rare books and documents.