Acquired From: Gowrie Galleries
Colouring: Uncoloured
Condition: Very Good
Confirmed: No
Dealers ID No.: M417/1 (STK 838.01)
Description: Cornelius Wytfliet was a geographer from Louvain, earned a Licentiate in Laws from the University of Louvain before moving to Brussels, where he became secretary to the Council of Brabant. In 1597, he published Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum, which he described as a supplement to Ptolemys Geography, as it focused on the Americasa part of the world unknown to Ptolemy. nThe book is divided into two parts: Part I provides a detailed history of the discovery of America, its geography, and natural history, while Part II features contemporary maps of the Americas alongside a world map based on Mercators projections. Dedicated to Philip III of Spain, the book chronicles the history of exploration, including the voyages of Christopher Columbus (14921502), John Cabot (149798), Sebastian Cabot (152628), Francisco Pizarro (152735), Giovanni da Verrazzano (1524), Jacques Cartier (154042), and Martin Frobisher (157678).nWytfliets maps are significant as many are the first, or among the earliest, detailed depictions of specific regions in North and South America. For this work, he created nineteen engraved mapsone of the world and eighteen regional maps of the Americas. The publication was an immediate success, with subsequent editions published in Louvain in 1598 and 1603.nOne of the notable maps included in Wytfliets Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum is this map divided into two sections. The top half, using a standard projection, depicts the southern tip of South America (Chica Sive Patagonum Regio), separated by a strait from a large, speculative southern continent labeled Australis Terrae Pars.nThe lower section of the map, drawn in polar projection, presents a vast Terra Australis made up of four peninsulas extending toward the southern tips of the known continents. One peninsula reaches toward the Cape of Good Hope; another stretches into the Indian Ocean, ending just south of Java Major and featuring place names such as Maletur Regnum, Beach, and Lucach Regnum. A third peninsula extends toward Nova Guinea, from which it is separated by a narrow strait. The fourth peninsula, incomplete on the map, likely points toward South America.nIn the accompanying text, Wytfliet comments:n"The Australis Terra is the most southern of all lands; it is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are as yet little known, as this route has been abandoned after a few voyages and is seldom visited except when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins two or three degrees from the equator and is believed by some to be so vast that, if fully explored, it might be considered a fifth part of the world."nThis map was closely copied by Johannes Metellus in 1598 (View Record (#226)) and Matthias Quad in 1600 (View Record (#198)).
Engraver: van Doetecum II, Johannes
First published: Wytfliet, Cornelius Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum Louvain: Jean Bogard, 1597
Mapmaker: Wytfliet, Cornelius (d. 1597)
Notes: Purchase details
Other states: Second (1598), Third (1607)
Primary Category: World
Purchase Reference: Insurance Ledger June 2015
References: Donald Gallup, The First Separately Published Atlas Entirely Devoted to the Americas: Wytfliets Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 76, no. 1 (March 1982): 6373,
This state: 1597
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