Janssonius Sea Atlas with Excellent Original Color

JANSSONIUS, Joannes (1588-1664).
Atlantis majoris quinta pars, orbem maritimum seu omnium marium totius orbis terrarum navigationibus hodierno tempore frequentatorum descripti-onem accuratissimam continens; cui adjunctus est orbis antiquus & Graeciae parallela.
Amsterdam: Joannes Janssonius, 1652.

"THE FIRST SEA ATLAS (IN THE REAL SENSE OF THE WORD)" (Koeman).

Folio (19 5/8 x 12 6/8 inches). Engraved historiated title-page, with contemporary hand-colour HEIGHTENED IN GOLD. Double-page engraved anemometric table with FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLOUR IN FULL (right-hand edge frayed, re-inforced on verso, and with short closed tear affecting the image) and 32 maps by Jansson, Peter Kaerius, J. Laurenberg, and others, all with FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND-COLOUR in outline and with the cartouches and other decorative elements colored in full (2D4 separated at the gutter). Contemporary gilt-panelled mottled calf, gilt edges (rebacked, with an early repair to the front cover).

Second Latin text edition, first published in 1650 as the fifth volume of Jansson's "Novus atlas." "Orbem maritimum" was the "first sea atlas in the real sense of the word . a collection of charts in folio size, to serve as an atlas for general purposes" (Koeman). Three maps relate to North America: an important sea-chart of the northern Atlantic "Mar del Nort"; "Insularum Hispaniolae et Cuba" showing the importance of these islands to the Spanish; and "Mar del Zur Hispanis Mare Pacificum" the first sea chart of the Pacific region, depicting California as an island, and a small part of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Other maps that show the early Western Australian coastline include "Mar di India" and "Polus Antarcticus". Koeman Me 165; cf Martin Woods for "Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia", National Library of Australia, page 157.