1700 Mortier: Large Chart North Africa & Mediterranean

Fine, original, copper-engraved map, in three sheets joined, of North Africa and the Mediterranean, from Tungarral (near the border of today’s Western Sahara and Morocco), facing the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, up to the Strait of Gibraltar, across North Africa, to the Gulf of Antioch (Antakya, Turkey) in the Mediterranean. The emphasis is on the names of ports, and insets of the major harbors (with soundings) at Gibraltar, Algiers, and Tripoli are provided. Rhumb lines (paths of constant compass-bearings) dominate the seas, adding to the navigational uses of the map, by Pierre Mortier: Carte des costes de l’Afrique sur la Mer Mediterranée, et le detroit de Gibraltar, les îles de Madere et des Canaries, iusques à Tungarral. Levee Par Ordre Expres des Roys de Portugal sous qui on en a Fait la Decouverte. Amsterdam, Pierre Mortier [c1700.] Dimensions overall: 25" x 54". A fine impression, with original outline color, with some browning along the top from damp staining, a diagonal crease in the right panel, some weakness to the paper due to the corrosive effects of verdigris pigment, near the Nile in Egypt, and the boundaries of Morocco, minor edge-wear, otherwise excellent. Several compass roses adorn the chart. From the third part of Mortier’s Le Neptune françois, which was separately issued and titled as Suite du Neptune françois, ou Atlas nouveau des cartes marines (Amsterdam, 1700). Mortier's Le Neptune françois was one of the most spectacular cartographical works ever produced. According to Koeman: "...the most expensive sea-atlas ever published in Amsterdam ... Its charts are larger and more lavishly decorated than those of any preceding book of this kind. For the engraving and etching Mortier had recruited the most qualified artists. This magnificent work was intended more as a show piece than something to be used by pilots at sea." "Pierre Mortier's grandparents were French émigrés, who left France in about 1625 to live in Leiden. His parents settled in Amsterdam in 1661 or 1662. Mortier grew up in Amsterdam but lived in Paris from 1681 to about 1685 where he must have gotten into the book trade. Once he was in Amsterdam again he specialized in French books and maintained his relationships with Parisian publishers. Amsterdam was at this time the international marketplace for books, especially books forbidden by repressive governments. He established himself in the field of cartographical publishing by offering editions of French maps, primarily Sanson's and Jaillot's to a public tired of the superb but dated Dutch offerings. Working on a scale larger than the typical Dutch folio map and providing the new insights of French geography, he was immensely successful." Scarce. High bidder pays 15.00 shipping. ****************************************************************************************************