Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in rare, important and unusual American maps and prints
![[Abraham Ortelius / Frans Hogenberg (engraver)], AMERICAE SIVE NOVI ORBIS, NOVA DESCRIPTIO. [Antwerp: Abraham Ortelius, 1570].](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/BRM4411-Ortelius-Americae-1st-1st-1570_lowres-scaled-e1690659873424-150x150.jpg)
The first state of the first edition of Abraham Ortelius’s influential map of the Americas, “both functional as well as decorative” (Burden). The map appeared in the very first edition of Ortelius’s 1570 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, generally recognized as the first modern atlas—the first to feature maps of uniform size and style providing global coverage […]
![[Willem Blaeu], NOVA BELGICA ET ANGLIA NOVA. [Amsterdam, 1635-1663.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/BRM4398-Nova-Belgica_recto_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A lovely example of a most important map by Willem Blaeu, the 1635 Nova Belgica is a cartographic summation of European settlement and geographic knowledge of New England and the mid-Atlantic in the first quarter of the 17th century. This map is based largely on the seminal 1614 manuscript map by the Dutch trader Adrien […]
![John Seller, A Chart of the Coast of AMERICA from New found Land to Cape Cod by Iohn Seller Hyrographer [sic] to the king. [London: John Seller, ca.1674]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BRM3678-Seller-Coast-of-North-America-1674_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Very scarce chart of the coasts of New England and the Canadian Maritimes from John Seller’s Atlas Maritimus, the best depiction of the region then available. Published in 1674, at a transitional moment in the history of the English colonies in North America. The chart depicts the coast from eastern Long Island round to Newfoundland […]
![John Thornton, Rob[er]t Morden and Phillip Lea, A NEW MAP OF NEW ENGLAND NEW YORK NEW IARSEY PENSILVANIA MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. London, ca. 1685.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/brm0975-thornton-ne-ny-nj-pa-md-va-1685-150x150.jpg)
The rare first obtainable state of the finest general map of England’s American colonies to date. This most important map is one of the earliest to adopt Augustine Herrman’s cartography for Virginia and Maryland. To the North it includes one of the earliest depictions of the Pennsylvania colony (est. 1681), the first printed chart of […]
![[After Cyprian Southack and Augustine Fitzhugh], BOSTON HARBOR in NEW=ENGLAND. London: William Fisher and John Thornton, 1689-1698.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM4323-Thornton-Boston-Harbor_recto_lowres-scaled-e1675876373969-150x150.jpg)
A great rarity, being the first large-scale printed map of the Boston area, the first printed chart of Boston Harbor, the first printed image to provide any detail for the town of Boston, and the first navigable chart of any harbor in North America. This remarkable work charts the Massachusetts waters between Marblehead and “Wamor” […]
![Iusto Danckers [aka Justus Danckerts], NOVI BELGII NOVAEQUE ANGLIAE NEC NON PENNSYLVANIAE ET PARTIS VIRGINIAE TABULA multis in locis emendata. [Amsterdam]: Justo Danckers, [ca. 1690.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM4397-Danckers-Novi-Belgii-ca-1690_lowres-150x150.jpg)
Justus Danckerts’ take on the iconic 17th-century map of the New Netherlands, New England, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Virginia. The so-called “Jansson-Visscher” series of maps began with Johannes Jansson’s 1651 Belgii Novi, which was published in Amsterdam and patriotically depicted a sprawling New Netherlands with a tiny New England confined east of the […]
![Johannes van Keulen , Pas-Kaart Vande Zee Kusten van Niew Nederland Anders Genaamt Niew York
. Amsterdam, [1684/ca. 1702.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/BRM1914-Van-Keulen-Niew-Nederland-1-scaled-e1644343079376-150x150.jpg)
Van Keulen’s important chart of the waters off New York and southern New England, much enhanced by its detailed treatment of coastal settlement and inset charts of the Hudson and Connecticut Rivers. The main chart depicts the coast from Rensselaer Hook in New Jersey to roughly the “elbow” of Cape Cod, with extensive soundings and notations […]
![Zacharias Landteck, ZACHARIAS LANDTECKS Neu inventierte GEOGRAPHISHE UNIVERSAL-ZEIG UND SCHLAG-UHR[:] ZACHARIAS LANDTECKS Nieuw Uytgevonde WEERELD-BEELDIGH WYS EN SLAG WERK. [Nüremburg: Johann Baptist Homann, ca. 1705?]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BRM3118-Landteck-Schlag-Uhr_lowres-150x150.jpg)
An interesting, attractive and very rare print depicting a remarkable universal clock purportedly developed by Nuremburg clock- and watchmaker Zacharias Landteck (1670-1740). Not to be confused with the vastly more common version attributing the clock to map- and instrument maker Johann Baptist Homann. The print depicts one face of Landteck’s clock, flanked left and right […]
![Thomas Pelham-Holles (Duke of Newcastle), James Oglethorpe, Francisco del Moral y Sánchez, et al., From the Duke of Newcastle. July 1736. Enclosing Papers on Georgia [Official copies of letters and other documents relating to the affairs of Georgia and its boundary dispute with Spanish Florida, submitted to Newcastle by Oglethorpe, and transmitted by Newcastle to Prime Minister Robert Walpole.] England, July 2, 1736.](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/BRM4204-Newcastle_Oglethorpe_Georgia-archive_combined_lowres-150x150.jpg)
A remarkable gathering of letters and other documents, submitted in 1736 by James Oglethorpe to the Duke of Newcastle and addressing the festering boundary dispute between the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida. Copied in a secretarial hand for transmission to King George II, with a signed cover letter by Newcastle. In all, a rich […]
An extraordinarily rare, interesting and sumptuously decorated allegorical map of the Island of Felicity, produced for one of the first Masonic orders to admit women. Background The map was designed and printed for l’Ordre de la Félicité. This short-lived Order was a quasi-Masonic secret society established in France in the early 1740s by Louis-Joseph Scipio La […]