Laet, Joannes de

Folio (12 7/8 x 8 1/2 in.; 327 x 215 mm). Half-title, engraved architectural title by Cornelis Claessen, 14 engraved double-page maps by Hessel Gerritsz, numerous woodcut illustrations in text, intermittent toning and damp-staining, contemporary ownership signature to half-title, small marginal wormholes to gatherings 1-3* A-F, not affecting text, but minorly affecting center fold of two maps, small marginal rust hole to Dd2. Blind-tooled contemporary pig, spine in 6 compartments, somewhat rubbed and soiled, joints cracked but strong. 

Alden & Landis 633/65; Borba de Moraes p. 451; Sabin 38557; Streeter I.37

FIRST EDITION IN LATIN. "One of the most famous contemporary descriptions of the natural history of the New World. The work was highly praised a century later by Charlevoix, attesting to its accuracy ... Winsor referred to Laet's book as the standard seventeenth-century work on New Netherland" (Streeter). Although first published in 1629, it was the Latin edition which gave de Laet's New World history wide circulation. It contains six more maps than its Dutch text predecessor. De Laet's maps exercised a great influence on map makers such as Blaeu and Jansson and are the most important detailed regional maps of the Americas during the seventeenth century.