1595 Mercator Map Denmark (1 results)

1st Edition. Excellent. Some marginal soiling. Centerfold reinforced at bottom margin, not impacting image. Else fine with a bold strike and generous margins. Size 14.75 x 17.5 Inches. This is a superb example of Gerard Mercator's 1595 map of the kingdom of Denmark, in its first edition. It shows the kingdom during the prosperous 16th century, during which it controlled both sides of the entrance to the Baltic Sea. A Closer Look The Kingdom of Denmark at this point included not only the Danish Peninsula and its islands, with Holstein, Mecklenburg and Rügen, but also the lands of Halland, Skåne and Blekinge, which eventually passed to Sweden as part of the treaty of Roskilde. Mercator's map is superbly engraved, with his dramatically hachured waves gracing the sea areas of the map. Off the Danish west coast near Heligoland (here Heilig landt ) a sea monster breaks the surface. Publication History and Census This map was drawn by Gerard Mercator, and probably also engraved by him for inclusion in his atlas; it would not be printed until 1595 in Mercator's posthumous Atlas, sive Cosmographicæ meditationes de fabrica mundi et fabricati figura . The map continued to be printed in the Mercator/ Hondius atlas until 1636. Thereafter it was replaced with Hondius' Daniae nova Descriptio . While the present map is not difficult to find in later printings, this 1595 first edition is quite scarce, appearing in only five institutions. References: OCLC 801767209. Rumsey 10501.124 (1607) Van der Krogt, P. C. J., Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, (Vol. 1), 1500 1:A.1.…