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Description:This large beautifully hand coloured original antique map of Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia & Estonia, was engraved by Robert Cordier - after Nicolas Sanson - in 1707 - the date is engraved in the title and published by Alexis Jaillot.
General Definitions:Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stablePaper color : - off whiteAge of map color: - OriginalColors used: - Yellow, green, blue, pinkGeneral color appearance: - AuthenticPaper size: - 29 1/2in x 21in (750mm x 535mm)Plate size: - 26in x 18 1/2in (660mm x 470mm)Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:Margins: - Light soilingPlate area: - Professional repair bottom left of plate, bottom centerfold re-joined and light upliftVerso: - Professional repairs as noted
Background:Before the fifteenth century the people of Southern Europe had little geographical knowledge of the Scandinavian World except from sketchy detail shown in the Catalan Atlas (1375) and on a number of " portolani" embracing Denmark and the southern tip of Norway. It was not until 1427 that a manuscript map prepared about that time by Claudius Clavus (b.1388) a Dane who spent some time in Rome, made available to scholars a tolerable outline of the northern countries and Greenland. That was to remain the best map available for the rest of the century and it was used as the basis for maps of Scandinavia in early printed editions of Ptolemy. Others by Nicolaus Cusanus (1491) and Ehrhard Etzlaub (c. 1492) followed but, needless to say, these are extremely rare; even the later maps by Olaus Magnus and Marcus Jordan, where they have survived at all , are known only by a very few examples. In fact, apart from the rare appearance of an early Ptolemy map, the oldest of Scandinavia which a collector is likely to find are those of Munster's Cosmograhy first published in 1544. In the following centuries the few maps and charts complied in Scandinavia were usually published in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris or Nuremberg, the most important maps often being incorporated in the major Dutch, French & German Atlases. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)