Laet, Joannes de.

First edition in French, folio (330 x 210mm.), printed title in red and black (with large printer's device), and 14 double-page engraved maps, numerous woodcut illustrations showing natural history and ethnographic subjects, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, title stained with 2 repairs, very occasional spotting, large repaired tear in map of Florida, some marginal staining at end of volume (from Ffff 3 to end) affecting map of Venezuela, spine repaired

Alden-Landis 640/111; Borba de Moraes I:451; Burden 215,229- 232; Sabin 38558; Willems 497

The condition of this book is as described in the catalogue description
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The second printed atlas of the Americas.

De Laet was a director of the Dutch West India Company, and so had access to the latest information, both from the company's personnel and from the archives. Although an important record - and perhaps the best seventeenth-century account - of the Americas, the real significance of the book is the suite of maps used to illustrate it, drawn by Hessel Gerritsz, official mapmaker to the Dutch West India Company and to the East India Company, chosen in preference to Willem Blaeu.

The maps in the first edition focussed on South America and the West Indies; with the Dutch settlement on Manhattan, de Laet added new maps of the Americas, maritime Canada, the eastern seaboard from New England to the Carolinas and of the south east.

Each of the regional maps was a landmark in the mapping of that region, with huge influence on the work of the Blaeu and Hondius-Janssonius families, and subsequent mapmakers, but none more than the New England map, which is "of extreme importance" (Burden), being the first printed map to name Manhattan (as "Manbattes"), N. Amsterdam (New York), Noordt Rivier (Hudson River), Suydt Rivier (the Delaware) and to use the name "Massachusets" for the nascent English colony in New England.