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Robert Dudley [1574 - 1649] A rare chart of the Pacific 'Carta…
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Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
5-May-2019
Lot No.
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Description:
Robert Dudley [1574 - 1649] A rare chart of the Pacific 'Carta particolare del mare del Sur che comincia con l'Isole di Salamone e finiscie con la costa di Lima nel Peru . . .' [Florence, 1646] 54 x 85 cm (in two sheets which are joined) The Pacific from the Solomon Islands to the South American Coastline (centred on Peru). A striking sea chart of the northern coast of part of the South Pacific, reaching from the Solomons to the central Peruvian Coastline, with notes in the south referencing the unknown and uncertain southern coastline (including a reference to Terra Australis Incognita). Includes a sailing ship and compass rose, with a number of notes in Italian regarding prevailing winds and currents. The chart locates the Solomon Islands in the northwest, with other islands far to the east, including: I. Incognite (likely part of the Tuamoto Islands) Isole Due (Two Groups Islands, in the Tuamotu Islands of French Polynesia) I. di S. Filippo (likely part of the Tuamoto Islands) I. di Gio Ferdinando (Juan Fernandez Island, Chile, discovered by Le Maire and Schoten in 1617) Jacques Le Maire and Willem Schouten were commissioned to find a new route to the Pacific and the Spice Islands to avoid the trading monopoly of the Dutch East India Company and to find the Southern Continent (Terra Australis). The chart appeared in Dudley's Arcano del Mare, one of the rarest and most highly sought after sea atlases of the 17th Century. Dudley, an Englishman, produced this exquisite work while living in Florence. He laboured for decades before finally releasing the first edition when he was 73 years old.
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified