Atlas Novus ad Usum Serenissimi Burgundiae Ducis

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Coloured

Condition: Good

Confirmed: Yes

Date Acquired: 30/11/2015

Description: Published in Amsterdam by Pierre Mortier, this frontispiece forms part of his broader ambition to establish a French-language cartographic publishing enterprise capable of rivaling the great atlas productions of Paris and Amsterdam. Having trained in Paris in the early 1680s, Mortier was uniquely positioned to combine French intellectual cartography with the technical excellence of Dutch engraving and printing. By 1690, he had secured exclusive privileges to publish and distribute French geographical works in the Dutch Republic, enabling the production of some of the most ambitious and visually assertive atlases of the early eighteenth century.nThis elaborately engraved titlepage was published in Amsterdam in 1720 for Jean Covens and Cornelis Mortiers Atlas Novus ad Usum Serenissimi Burgundiae Ducis, also known as the Atlas François or Atlas Nouveau Contenant toutes les parties du Monde. Conceived as a rival to the great Dutch atlases of Blaeu and Janssonius, the work presents a richly ornamented vision of global geography shaped by Enlightenment ideals of order, knowledge, and imperial reach.nThe upper register depicts the personifications of the continents assembled beneath a monumental architectural canopy. Europe, enthroned at the centre left, receives homage from Africa, Asia, and America, asserting European political and cultural supremacy. Africa kneels while offering ivory tusks, behind her America presents a tablet suggestive of wealth or knowledge; and Asia stands at the left, turbaned with a censer and chalice, symbols of trade and ritual. Behind Africa, Europe is further associated with her classical attribute, the bull, while Cybele, the earth-goddess, appears nearby bearing a basket of fruit, reinforcing themes of fertility, abundance, and stability.nOpposite Europe stands the figure of Geography, equipped with dividers and an astrolabe suspended from her waist, is unrolling a plan before Mars, the god of war, who gestures toward itan image suggesting the subjugation of violence to reason, measurement, and order. Behind them, Atlas rises from a mountainous landscape to support the heavens, across which Apollo drives his quadriga, embodying cosmic harmony and enlightenment.nThe lower portion of the composition depicts river and sea deities pouring streams of water from large amphorae, symbolising the worlds waterways. A figure traditionally identified as Triton appears in the background, associated with maritime imagery and the elemental power of the sea.nArt historian Ulla Ehrensvärd has suggested that the seated figure beside the flowing waters, holding a telescopic instrument identifiable as a polemoscopean optical device invented by Johannes Hevelius in 1637may represent Faunus, the Roman god associated with agriculture and animal husbandry.nAt the lower right, of the upper register the engraver Romeyn de Hooghe has signed the work; however, the identity of the designer indicated by the inscription J v D inv. fecit remains uncertain.This grand frontispiece integrates classical mythology, scientific instrumentation, and political symbolism, framing the atlas as both an intellectual achievement and a visual assertion of European global authority.

Engraver: Hooghe, Romeyn de (1645-1708)

First published: Atlas François, Amsterdam: Jean Covens & Corneille Mortier, 1720

Mapmaker: Covens, Jean & Mortier, Corneille

Price: 1,000

Primary Category: Titlepage

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022. Inv. 2015-008

References: Ehrensvärd, Ulla "Decorative Illustrations in Early Maps and Atlases"' in Nordenskiöld Seminar Papers edited by Kerkko Hakulinen and Arvo Peltonen, 11731. Helsinki, 1981.

Shirley ID #: 72 Courtiers and Cannibals

Technique: Copper Engraving

This state: First