• Title : Islandia
• Ref #:  51000
• Size: 21 1/2in x 16in (545mm x 405mm)
• Date : 1607
• Condition: (A) Very Good Condition

Description:
This original hand coloured copper-plate engraved antique early map of Iceland was published in the 1607 French edition of the Mercator Hondius Atlas sive Cosmographicae.
This is only the second map of Iceland after the 1590 map by Abraham Ortelius. This map was originally published by Mercator in 1595.

Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, red, green, orange, blue
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21 1/2in x 16in (545mm x 405mm)
Plate size: -  17 1/4in x 11 1/4in (438mm x 285mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light age toning
Plate area: - Small repair to scale
Verso: - Small repair to right margin

Background:
The geography of this famous Mercator map of Iceland derives – along with the Ortelius map - from a map by Gudbrandur Thorlaksson, Bishop of Holar and author of the first complete Icelandic translation of the Bible (“Gudbrandsbiblia”). As Mercator's “Islandia” was issued five years later than Ortelius' “Islandia” the question is whether Mercator's map is based on the map of Ortelius or directly from the same source, Gudbrandur's map which no longer exists.
"There is absolutely no doubt that this map is made from the same copy as the map by Ortelius, or one closely resembling it. The correspondences between both versions seem all to point in the same direction, namely that the limitations derive to a considerable extent from bishop Gudbrandur's original". And further: "We have no means of knowing how bishop Gudbrandur's map came into the hands of Mercator. He and Ortelius had been life-long friends, and there was probably some cooperation between them" ( islandskort.is ). More information on the speculations about the origin of both maps is to be found in islandskort.is.
A comparison of the geographical positioning and the shape of Iceland leads to the result that the figures of latitude and longitude are not exactly the same on the maps of Ortelius and Mercator. The latter “puts the country more to the north than Ortelius and thus increases the error” ( islandskort.is ). In both maps the country is more angular than the line of the country justifies and the coasts are drawn too straight. The uninhabited parts of the country are largely ignored and compressed so that the distances between the north and the south of the country are far too short.
The Mercator map has considerably more names, almost 300 in all. "Some of them must certainly derive from the bishop but others are of more doubtful nature and have no other function than to increase the total number... As far as place names are concerned Mercator seems to have departed further from the original than Ortelius" islandskort.is ), eg for Thingvellir, the famous site of the Althing, Ortelius uses "Finguollur" and Mercator "Bingnottr".
Mercator's map has a decorative strapwork title cartouche in the upper right corner supplemented by the information on the author: “Per Gerardum Mercatorem cum Privilegio” in lower right corner and a distance scale topped with dividers in the lower left quadrant. In the upper left there is a headline “In Iokuls fiorder et Isa fiorder” with numbers and fjord names and underneath which explain the position of fjords in the northwestern part of Iceland. In the ocean south of Reykjanes peninsula two short notes are to be found which mean: Springs change the color of wool (from black to white on the left, from white to black on the right), as in Ortelius' map.
What particularly catches the eye is the fire spewing Hekla. The text says: “Hekli pial Hekla mons perpetuo ardens” (Hekla perpetually burning”). Amongst the place-names are the bishoprics Skalholt (“Episcopalis Sedes et Schola”) and “Halar” (Holar) (“Sedes episcopalis et schola”). Some of the glaciers (“hökel”) on the highlands are marked but surprisingly Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe, is missing while the glacier “Hnannadalr hökel” is depicted which could stand for “Hvannadalshnukur”, the summit crater of Oreafajökull, the southern extremity of Vatnajökull. (Ref: Burden; Koeman; Tooley; M&B)