Beschreibung:

MERCATOR, Gerard (1512-1594) & Jodocus HONDIUS (1563-1611). Atlas sive Cosmographicae . Amsterdam: Jodocus Hondius 1619. 2° (467 x 315mm). Mounted on guards throughout, French text. Hand-coloured engraved allegorical title, double-page portrait of Mercator and Hondius, 4 section titles and 158 maps on 156 sheets (i.e 153 double-page maps, 1 single page map, 4 maps on 2 double-page sheets). TWO LARGE ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT AND WATERCOLOUR MAPS ON VELLUM OF THE WORLD AND NORTHERN EUROPE BY SALOMON DE CAUS "INGENIEUR ET ARCHITECTE DU ROY" THE MAPS DATED 1624 bound in, each mounted on later guards. (Margins of title and a few other leaves, particularly the preliminaries, repaired and strengthened, occasional light browning and spotting, occasionally heavy.) Contemporary vellum, covers panelled in gilt, the flat-backed spine in eight compartments, g.e. (ties lacking, small tears to head and foot of spine). Provenance : Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope (1714-1786, a.l.s. from Chonelieu?, dated Delices (Switzerland) 9 fevr. 1771, presenting the copy to Lord Stanhope, mounted on front endpaper). Koeman II Me 26a. A fine copy of the Mercator-Hondius atlas with the addition of TWO IMPORTANT ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT MAPS BY SALOMON DE CAUS comprising: Carte Universelle , signed 'par S.de Caus Ingenieur et Architecte du Roy 1624', an oval world map on a single vellum sheet, ink and wash, 490 x 790mm, coastlines coloured in outline, 17 settlements denoted by small settlement symbols [Rome, Mecha (Mecca), Mosco(w), Constantinople, Quebec, Quinsay (Beijing), Jerusalem, La Babylone, Mexique (Mexico City), Leon, Lima, Cusco, Arica, Potosi, ville de la plate, Fernanborg (in Brasil), Cambalu (in Cathay)], regional names and tribal names in red and gold, rivers and lake in blue, mountains in brown, forests in green, the Great Wall marked by crenillations, the Equator in gold stipple, tropics in blue, arctic and antarctic circles in red. The seas are decorated with wavy blue lines, both seas and oceans lettered in gold, graticule construction of the map just visible in faint sepia lines. The oval world map is surrounded by thick black wash and set within a sepia and crimson ruled border, the extremities decorated by 8 oval or circular vignettes of French possesions or areas of interest, comprising small maps of Havana, Rhodes, Isle St. Thomas, Tunis, and views of Quebec, Cusco, a native encampment in Virginia and Penon de Velez. (One small cut into lower margin just affecting border, slight staining to inner edge.) Les Paiis Bas ou la Basse Alemaigne...memoire des villes principalles que le Roy Despagne tient au pays bas en ceste annee 1624 15eme mars..memoire des villes que Messrs Les Estats tiennent signed 'par S.de Caus Ingenieur et architecte du Roy. Illumunated manuscript map on a single vellum sheet, ink and wash, 640 x 810mm., the map depicting the states of Germany and the Low Countries, as well as the Eastern portion of England. Numerous towns indicated by settlement symbols, regions delineated by wash outlines, rivers in blue, place-names in sepia, regional names in red, countries and seas in gold. The seas decorated with wavy blue lines, three ships (flying the French flag) and a sea monster, the title set in the North Sea as a tableau cartouche with scale bars below, ruled sepia borders with multi-coloured infills, inset tables of the principal towns at lower right corner. (Very light soiling to lower margins, old glue stains to inner margin, small flaw in the vellum neatly stitched.) Salomon de Caus (1576-1626), was a celebrated French Architect and Engineer, particularly recognised for his work Les Raisons des Forces mouvantes, avec diverses machine published first in Frankfurt in 1615, and later a second edition in Paris, 1624, this edition dedicated to Louis XIII. He was probably born in Dieppe, studied mathematics and the sciences. In 1612 he was in London working for the Prince of Wales (later Charles I), and from 1614-1