Nova Reperta

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Good

Date Acquired: 15/8/2018

Dealers ID No.: 18932

Description: The Nova Reperta (New Discoveries) offers a comprehensive visual record of early modern achievements, highlighting milestones such as the discovery of the New World (the Americas), as well as advancements in medicine, mechanics, and the arts. First published around 1588, this series was created from the collaboration between the designer Jan van der Straet, engraver Theodoor Galler and publisher Philip Galle. nAlthough the exact dating of Nova Reperta remains uncertain, the first edition's inclusion of recently acquired information about the Americas suggests a terminus post quem of 1588. Widely disseminated, the engravings saw multiple reissues and became some of the most circulated images of the early modern period. nThe series as we know it consists of a title page and nineteen engravings. It is almost certain however that it was initially intended as a set of ten engravings focused on the New World and maritime discoveries, and was later expanded to capture various "new things" emerging in early modern Europe. According to scholar Alice Bonner McGinty, van der Straet and Galle wove together four main themes within the series: the discovery of America, including a depiction of Amerigo Vespucci's encounter with an allegorical America (folio 1); the mastery of matter and movement, such as in distillation (folio 7) and water- and wind-powered mills (folios 1011); agricultural advances, particularly in silk (folio 8) and sugarcane production (folio 13); and the reproduction of information through printed books (folio 4), graphics (folio 19), and oil painting (folio 14). nEach engraving includes a Latin title and a concise explanatory subtitle, their sequence is:n0. Nova reperta: (title page)n1. America: Amerigo Vespuccis discovery of America.n2. Lapis polaris, magnes: The magnetic compass. n3. Pulvis pyrius: Gunpowder and cannons. n4. Impressio librorum: Book printing. n5. Horologia ferrea: Clockwork. n6. Hyacum, et lues venerea: Medicinal treatment for syphilis. n7. Distillatio: Alcohol distillation. n8. Ser, siue sericus vermis: Silk production. n9. Staphae, siue stapedes: Horse stirrups. n10. Mola aquaria: Watermill. n11. Mola alata: Windmill. n12. Oleum oliuarum: Olive oil press. n13. Saccharum: Sugar processing. n14. Color oliui: Oil painting. n15. Conspicilla: Eyeglasses. n16. Orbis longitudines repertae è magnetis à polo declinatione: Longitude determination. n17 Politura armorum: Metal polishing. n18. Astrolabium: Astrolabium and the Southern Cross. n19. Sculptura aes: Copperplate engraving.

Engraver: Collaert, Jan (ca. 1530-1581) and Galle, Theodor

First published: Nova Reperta Antwerp: Philip Galle, 1588

Mapmaker: Straet, Jan van der (1523-1605)

Other states: Four edtions printed between 1589 and 1638

Price: 30,000 Purchased with entry #211

Primary Category: Book/Atlas

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022. Email 14/08/2018

Rarity: R1 Extremely rare – occasionally seen on the market

References: Alice Bonner McGinty, Stradanus (Jan Van Der Straet): His Role in the Visual Communication of the Renaissance Discoveries, Technologies, and Values (PhD diss., Tufts University, 1974).nLia Markey, Stradanos Allegorical Invention of the Americas in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence, Renaissance Quarterly 65, no. 2 (2012): 385442. Also Lia Markey, Renaissance Invention: Stradanuss Nova Reperta (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 2020), and Gert Jan van der Sman, Fertile Imagination: Stradanus as an Inventor of Prints, in Stradanus (15231605): Court Artist of the Medici, ed. Alessandra Baroni and Manfred Sellink (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), 13559.

Sheet size (cm): 21×28

Technique: Copper Engraving

This state: 1588

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