Details
[PORTOLAN ATLAS]. JAIME DOSSAIGA. Portolan Atlas, signed and dated
[Venice?] 1590
Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 10 leaves, i.e., 4 bifolia with 2 blank leaves (one at beginning and one at end) pasted together back to back, 4 DOUBLE-PAGE MAPS, hundreds of place names in brown ink in a fine slightly sloping italic minuscule, names of countries, important towns and rivers in red ink, coastlines in gold wash, coastlines of the larger "islands" (including the Norwegian and Swedish peninsula) in green or grey, smaller islands colored in red or grey-blue, occasionally heightened in gold, a few of the Greek islands in gold wash, rivers in silver wash, the land masses decorated with small geographically fictitious mountain ranges in brown ink and green and blue wash heightened with gold, red and green rhumb-lines, each map with a single scale bar and several large windroses in gold and colored ink, the windroses surmounted by gold fleurs-de-lys indicating the north, the scale bars within ornamental cartouches, the first and second maps with latitude scale in red and gold wash along the left side, graduated from 78 N to 14 N, the first map with title cartouche in colored ink and gold, lettered in gold "Iaimes Dossaiga fecit 1590", above a sea monster in purplish-grey and pink wash, decorative borders in a scale pattern in brown ink and grey wash; 367 x 238 mm. (14 7/16 x 9 9/16 in.).
Brown levant morocco, covers with quadruple gilt fillet border, spine in six compartments, the second gilt-lettered "Portulan", the others richly gilt, board edges and turn-ins gilt, vellum endleaves and fly-leaves, by Lortic fils, the leaves of the manuscript mounted on guards, several small wormholes to the outer edges of the first map, with loss to a place name and to the decorative border, one wormhole continuing through the facing leaf affecting a single letter of the second map, another wormhole near the gutter from the second map to the end, with loss to letters of 3 place names and part of a coastline and mountain range of the third map, and to a spot of coastline of the fourth map, the latter with a few other tiny wormholes, one touching a rhumb-line, 2-inch square abrasion to the first map, obscuring part of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula including some place names and rhumb-lines, some wear and minor tears and holes to center fold of the first and 4th maps, the latter discolored to about an inch at either side of the gutter, a corner of the first map chipped, a few small stains, the color wash smeared in a fiew spots.
Contents
Folios 1v-2r: The coast of Europe from the northern coast of Norway to the middle of Spain, including the British isles and the eastern half of Iceland. Almost all the Baltic Sea is shown, including most of the Gulf of Finland and the opening of the Gulf of Bothnia (the rest implied, its place occupied by a windrose). Both coasts of France are shown, the Mediterranean coast continuing to slightly south of the island of Elba on the east and to south of Alicante on the Spanish coast. The Portuguese coast extends to below the bay of Sétubal south of Lisbon.
Folios 2v-3r: The Atlantic coasts of the Iberian peninsula and northwest Africa, from north of the Bay of Biscay to Cap Verde.
Folios 3v-4r: The western Mediterranean and the Adriatic, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Sidra on the African coast and to just south of Corfu and Paxos on the Greek coast. Also shows the Atlantic coast and the southwestern Baltic, from Santander on the northern Spanish coast to the Gulf of Riga, including the southern tip of Sweden. (This map is the least accurately proportioned of the four.)
Folios 4v-5r: The eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, to north of the Sea of Azov.
f the cartographer Jaimes Dossaiga nothing is known; but his family may have come from the village Dos Aiguas near Tarragona in Spain. In style and use of color his charts resemble Italian portolans of this period, suggesting that he may have been affiliated with a Venetian or Genoese workshop [Maggioli workshop in Genoa? or in Majorca (later in Marseilles), the Oliva workshop, 1532-1659?].
Literature
G. Uzielli and P. Amat de S. Filippo, Mappa mondi, carte nautiche, portolani, Rome 1882 (reprint, Amsterdam 1967), no. 552 (listed as Jaime de Ossaiga", Spanish).
A.E. Nordenskiöld, Periplus, Stockholm 1897, p. 68.
Provenance: 1) Ricardo Hérédia, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Ricardo Hérédia, III, Paris 1893, 2850. (At the time of the Hérédia sale the atlas was bound in red morocco with the gilt arms of the Society of Jesus.)
2) Luigi Arrigoni of Milan, with his bookplate.
[Venice?] 1590
Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 10 leaves, i.e., 4 bifolia with 2 blank leaves (one at beginning and one at end) pasted together back to back, 4 DOUBLE-PAGE MAPS, hundreds of place names in brown ink in a fine slightly sloping italic minuscule, names of countries, important towns and rivers in red ink, coastlines in gold wash, coastlines of the larger "islands" (including the Norwegian and Swedish peninsula) in green or grey, smaller islands colored in red or grey-blue, occasionally heightened in gold, a few of the Greek islands in gold wash, rivers in silver wash, the land masses decorated with small geographically fictitious mountain ranges in brown ink and green and blue wash heightened with gold, red and green rhumb-lines, each map with a single scale bar and several large windroses in gold and colored ink, the windroses surmounted by gold fleurs-de-lys indicating the north, the scale bars within ornamental cartouches, the first and second maps with latitude scale in red and gold wash along the left side, graduated from 78 N to 14 N, the first map with title cartouche in colored ink and gold, lettered in gold "Iaimes Dossaiga fecit 1590", above a sea monster in purplish-grey and pink wash, decorative borders in a scale pattern in brown ink and grey wash; 367 x 238 mm. (14 7/16 x 9 9/16 in.).
Brown levant morocco, covers with quadruple gilt fillet border, spine in six compartments, the second gilt-lettered "Portulan", the others richly gilt, board edges and turn-ins gilt, vellum endleaves and fly-leaves, by Lortic fils, the leaves of the manuscript mounted on guards, several small wormholes to the outer edges of the first map, with loss to a place name and to the decorative border, one wormhole continuing through the facing leaf affecting a single letter of the second map, another wormhole near the gutter from the second map to the end, with loss to letters of 3 place names and part of a coastline and mountain range of the third map, and to a spot of coastline of the fourth map, the latter with a few other tiny wormholes, one touching a rhumb-line, 2-inch square abrasion to the first map, obscuring part of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula including some place names and rhumb-lines, some wear and minor tears and holes to center fold of the first and 4th maps, the latter discolored to about an inch at either side of the gutter, a corner of the first map chipped, a few small stains, the color wash smeared in a fiew spots.
Contents
Folios 1v-2r: The coast of Europe from the northern coast of Norway to the middle of Spain, including the British isles and the eastern half of Iceland. Almost all the Baltic Sea is shown, including most of the Gulf of Finland and the opening of the Gulf of Bothnia (the rest implied, its place occupied by a windrose). Both coasts of France are shown, the Mediterranean coast continuing to slightly south of the island of Elba on the east and to south of Alicante on the Spanish coast. The Portuguese coast extends to below the bay of Sétubal south of Lisbon.
Folios 2v-3r: The Atlantic coasts of the Iberian peninsula and northwest Africa, from north of the Bay of Biscay to Cap Verde.
Folios 3v-4r: The western Mediterranean and the Adriatic, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Sidra on the African coast and to just south of Corfu and Paxos on the Greek coast. Also shows the Atlantic coast and the southwestern Baltic, from Santander on the northern Spanish coast to the Gulf of Riga, including the southern tip of Sweden. (This map is the least accurately proportioned of the four.)
Folios 4v-5r: The eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, to north of the Sea of Azov.
f the cartographer Jaimes Dossaiga nothing is known; but his family may have come from the village Dos Aiguas near Tarragona in Spain. In style and use of color his charts resemble Italian portolans of this period, suggesting that he may have been affiliated with a Venetian or Genoese workshop [Maggioli workshop in Genoa? or in Majorca (later in Marseilles), the Oliva workshop, 1532-1659?].
Literature
G. Uzielli and P. Amat de S. Filippo, Mappa mondi, carte nautiche, portolani, Rome 1882 (reprint, Amsterdam 1967), no. 552 (listed as Jaime de Ossaiga", Spanish).
A.E. Nordenskiöld, Periplus, Stockholm 1897, p. 68.
Provenance: 1) Ricardo Hérédia, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Ricardo Hérédia, III, Paris 1893, 2850. (At the time of the Hérédia sale the atlas was bound in red morocco with the gilt arms of the Society of Jesus.)
2) Luigi Arrigoni of Milan, with his bookplate.