Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
A remarkable attempt to reconcile the findings of Verrazzano’s 1524 voyage, which demonstrated the existence of a continuous coastline from Florida to Nova Scotia, with those of Cartier’s voyages to the Canadian Maritimes in the 1530s. It is also the first printed map of the East Coast and the first to identify Narragansett Bay, Block […]
The scarce first edition of La Nuova Francia, the first map to focus on New England and northeastern North America and to name “New France.” This remarkable map was compiled by Giacomo Gastaldi for Giovanni Ramusio’s Navigationi et Viaggi, the third volume of which focused on American explorations. It reflects Gastaldi’s attempt to synthesize information […]
Ruscelli’s enlarged edition of a crucially important map first issued in 1548 by Giacomo Gastaldi. The Gastaldi prototype was the first printed map to report in any detail the results of Verrazzano’s seminal 1524 voyage, which shaped the modern conception of North America by demonstrating a contiguous coast from Florida to Nova Scotia. It was […]
A landmark in the cartography of North America, being the first map to focus on New England and the Northeast, the first to provide a plausible depiction of New York Harbor and the Hudson River, and the first to name “New France.” The map reflects Gastaldi’s attempt to synthesize information from two epochal voyages-that of […]
Samuel Champlain first came to America in 1603, and spent much of the next few years engaged in a series of voyages exploring the coasts of New England and Nova Scotia. He described his experiences and observations in Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain (1613), which he published to build support for the settlement of […]
A remarkable chart by Samuel Champlain, being one of the first of North America and one of the earliest visual records of the European encounter with the native peoples of New England. The chart was drawn form personal observations by Samuel Champlain, the visionary sailor, soldier, explorer, diplomat, mapmaker and founder of New France. “From 1604 to 1607 […]
One of the iconic early American maps: “the foundation map of New England cartography, the one that gave [New England] its name and the first devoted to the region.” (Burden #187) Background By turns a soldier, explorer, author, leader and entrepreneur, John Smith was one of the most extraordinary figures in the early European settlement […]
One of the finest early maps of the Northeast and a crucial document of England’s early attempts at colonization. Background In 1606 James I chartered the London (South Virigina) and the Plymouth (North Virginia) Companies, assigning them the rights and responsibilities for settling vast territories along the East Coast of North America. The London Company […]
An important, rare and very unusual map of North America and the Caribbean, extracted by Blaeu from his landmark West Indische Paskaert to meet a publishing deadline. The Insulae Americanae depicts eastern North America, much of Central America, part of Latin America, and the islands of the Caribbean. The brightly-painted arms of the Netherlands, England […]
An extraordinary old-color example of “the foundation map of New England cartography, the one that gave [New England] its name and the first devoted to the region.” (Burden #187) Offered here is the ninth and most complete state of the map, issued from 1635 on in the Historia Mundi, an English edition of the Mercator-Hondius Atlas. […]