Auction Heijns
**Tuesday 7 March 2023 at 14h00
COUTON VEYRAC JAMAULT**
44000 NANTES, FRANCE
**Expert : Béatrice Loeb-Larocque**
Membre du Syndicat Français des Experts Professionnels, 31 rue de Tolbiac, 75013 Paris
Tél. : +33 (0)1 44 24 85 80 / (0)6 11 80 33 75
E-mail : loeb.larocque@gmail.com
Estimation : 3 000 € - 5 000 € / Sold for 22.000 €
Oblong 8vo (155 x 208 mm) ; ff. (1), 16-97, (1) and 80 woodcut maps. Contemporary limp vellum binding decorated with a gilt central medallion, flat spine with gilt fleurons and fillets. Gilt edges. The first edition, published in Amsterdam in 1598, illustrated with 80 woodcut maps.Unusual Zacharias Heyns's edition, in French, of Ortelius' "Epitome".
With this exceptional pocket edition of the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum", the publisher, a son of Peter Heyns, author of the rhymed text for Ph. Galle's 1st ed. in 1579, wished to thank Walter del Prato, a Cologne merchant, for marrying his niece. He presented this "Miroir du monde" as an enlargement of his father's bestseller and a tribute to him. But, instead of the common choice for copperplates, he illustrated the atlas with woodcuts, not based on the usual sources, such as the atlases of Ortelius or Mercator but mostly on the original maps.
Also, Zacharias omitted the planned 18 lvs introduction, only including a dedication, a poem and a portrait, and gave his first gathering the signature "A&E" to make it clear that the atlas is complete. With the printer's mark (variant A) with the three main virtues on the title.
Remboîtage binding is slightly shorter than the atlas. Binding is slightly browned and rubbed, small lack of vellum upper part of the back cover. Minor restoration at the bottom of folio 16. Generally a very pleasing example, internally sound and very clean.
Van der Krogt IIIA [334:01A] ; Burden 111 ; Shirley 209