Sold Antiques

M-11292: (Image: 5 ¼ x 6 ¾’’)  "CARTA MARINA NOVA TABVLA"  Venice:  Giacomo Gastaldi, c. 1548. Original copper-plate engraving. (Shirley # 88).

This scarce Navigator’s Chart is the earliest obtainable depiction of the California peninsula, and the earliest obtainable copper-plate world map for collectors.  It identifies numerous coastal names. There are crisscross rhumb lines radiating from sixteen focal points.  The map displays Gastaldi’s belief in a continuous northern landmass and the closing of the northern continents into an unbroken ring. The western portion of the North American continent is joined with the Asian continent, and eastern North America is joined to Scandinavia through Greenland. Montagna Verda is printed upside-down in the area of New York. A large un-named cape on the upper Atlantic coast is probably Cape Cod.

A beautiful engraving by the leading Venetian cartographer of the mid 16th century !

Gastaldi was appointed Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic in the 1540's.