Aracam

Method Copper engraved
Artist van den Keere, Pieter
Published Petrus Kaerius caelavit [Cornelis Claesz, Amsterdam, 1602]
Dimensions 85 x 125 mm
Notes A miniature map of the mountain region of Arakan, modern day Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma), oriented with east to top, engraved by Keere for Barent Langenes' Caert-Thresoor. This example, featuring French verso text, as well as the addition of latitude marks along the top border, came from the 1602 printing of Claesz' French translation, the Thrésor de chartes.

Pieter van den Keere, also known frequently as Petrus Kaerius, came to England in 1584, as a Protestant refugee from his home town of Ghent with his sister Colette, who married Jodocus Hondius, in 1587. It was probably from Hondius that Keere learned to engrave. Both engravers left London in 1593 to settle in Amsterdam. His first set of miniature maps were produced for the Middelburg publisher Cornelis Claesz, for inclusion in Barent Langenes' Caert Thresoor. Keere began to engrave a series of miniature maps in 1599 in preparation for a small atlas of the British Isles. The maps were first published in 1617 by William Blaeu with plate numbers and Latin text. They then passed to George Humble, who published them in 1619 and then again in 1627, by which time they had become known colloquially as 'Miniature Speeds.'

Barent Langenes (fl. 1597/1598) was a Dutch bookseller and publisher. Little is known about his life and work, apart from his publication of 'Caert-Thresoor' in Middelburg in 1598. The atlas was for sale at Cornelis Claesz's shop in Amsterdam, and was later republished by Claesz, without the Langenes name. The atlas was published by several publishers in different languages between 1598 and 1650 and became quite popular this way. Today the Langenes atlas is mostly associated with Petrius Bertius, who published the first Latin edition in 1600 under the title 'Tabularum Geographicarum Contractarum'.

Condition: Chips and creasing to corners of sheet, not affecting map. French text on verso.
Framing mounted
Price £180.00
Stock ID 47423

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