MADAGASCAR: I.S. LAURENTIJ.

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Copper engraving (Very Good, full margins, very lightly toned, mild printer's creases running through upper left corner and in lower right blank margin), sheet size: 13.2 x 17.4 cm (5.2 x 6.9 inches), platemark: 9 x 12.2 cm (3.5 x 4.8 inch Exceedingly rare a miniature work that is one the most attractive early printed maps of Madagascar, exquisitely engraved by the master Benjamin Wright, included in the Visscher-Langenes Atlas. This fine little map depicts all of Madagascar (noted here by its archaic European name of 'S. Laurtentij', or the island of St. Lawrence) taken from an eastward-orientated perspective. Engraved with remarkable élan by the English master Benjamin Wright, the topographical and features of the island come alive: the mountains and villages areas portrayed pictographically, while the numerous offshore islands and reefs are vigorously represented; features are labelled in an attractive font. During the time of this map's issue Madagascar was an important waypoint for mariners headed for India, Indonesia and the Far East. Later in the 17th Century, it would become the main base for pirates praying on the East Indies trade. The first edition of the map appeared in the 1598 edition of Barent Langenes's miniature and the same copperplate was used in at least a dozen other works over the next two generations. The present issue of the map, from Claes Jansz Visscher's Tabularum geographicarum (1649) is remarkable from the other editions, at it is printed on much higher quality paper, giving it a uniquely sharp and resplendent appearance that properly honours the merit of Wright's masterly engraving. The Visscher-Langenes Atlas The present map is from Claes Jansz Visscher's exceedingly rare and lovely miniature atlas, Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri quatuor denuò recogniti (Amsterdam, 1649), a late edition of the atlas Caert-Thesoor, which was first issued under mysterious circumstances in 1597, following some arrangement between the Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz and the obscure Middelburg publisher Barent Langenes (the supposed first edition is now thought lost). Re-issued in several editions (all today rare) over the two generations from 1598, the work set the gold standard for minatlases, as noted "The small maps [it contained] are extremely well-engraved: neat and clear and elegantly composed". Indeed, the maps were of uncommonly fine engraving, done by artists such as Jocodus Hondius I, Pieter van den Keere and Benjamin Wright. Many of the maps were based on groundbreaking information from recent Dutch voyages of exploration or current events. The leading Amsterdam publisher Claes Jansz Visscher acquired many of the original Claesz-Langenes plates, plus many of those from the subsequent editions of the atlas, as well as some additional plates not previously published; incorporating all of these into the production of the Tabularum geographicarum (1649). The individual maps are very rare, and the atlas is known in only 2 complete examples, at the British Library and the University of Heidelberg. The present map of Madagascar is extremely rare we cannot locate another example from the Visscher-Langenes atlas as having appeared on the market during the last generationrences: Koeman, At Neelandici, vol. III, Vis 4 - Lan 15 (p. 162); Map Forum (online article), 'Barent Langenes: A Collation of his Tabularum Contractarum 1649', Seller Inventory # 64534

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