Boston Rare MapsSpecializing in antique American maps & prints
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 […]
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 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. […]
A bundle of milestones by the colorful English chart maker Robert Dudley: The “first printed chart of New England and the New Netherlands” (Burden), and the first of the region to “indicate the prevailing winds, ocean currents and magnetic variations of the compass,” (Burden). From the “first nautical atlas by an Englishman, and the first […]
This map appeared in the 1674 first and 1684 second editions of Receuil De Divers Voyages Faits En Afrique Et En L`Amerique, a collection of travel narratives compiled by the French scholar Henri Justel. The geography is closely copied from one in Blome`s 1672 Description of the Island of Jamaica; with the other Isles and […]
An iconic map of the New Netherlands, New England, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Virginia. A superb example in fine original color on thick paper with wide margins. This is an interesting entrant in the “Jansson-Visscher” series of maps, many variants of which were issued over the course of more than a century. The […]
![Nicholas Visscher, NOVI BELGII NOVAEQUE ANGLIAE NEC NON PARTIS VIRGINIAE TABULA
. [Amsterdam, ca. 1684.]](https://bostonraremaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/brm2003-visscher-novi-belgii-e1440888373548-147x150.jpg)
A superb example of Nicholas Visscher‘s Novi Belgii, an iconic map of the New Netherlands, New England, Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland and Virginia. This is one of the most important entrants in the “Jansson-Visscher” series of maps, many variants of which were issued over the course of more than a century. The sequence began with a Joannes Jansson map of […]
This important work provides crucial information on eastern New York and southern New England. The main chart depicts the coast from Rensselaer Hook in New Jersey to roughly the “elbow” of Cape Cod, with extensive soundings and notations of shoals and other hazards. Much detail is given for Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay and the waters […]
![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 […]
Propelled by economic hardship, religious persecution and repeated warfare, waves of German settlers began the first of many waves of immigration to America. Through the end of the 18th century the largest number ended up in Pennsylvania, with significant populations also settling in the Hudson Valley and upstate new York, Virginia, and North Carolina. Seeking […]