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Sold by order of the Trustees of the Firle Estate Settlement
MERCATOR, Gerard (1512-1594)
Tabulae Geographicae. Duisburg: 1585-1589.
Details
MERCATOR, Gerard (1512-1594)
Tabulae Geographicae. Duisburg: 1585-1589.
The finest example to come to market: a sumptuous atlas, richly hand-coloured and illuminated in silver and gold by the 16th-century Nuremberg colourists Georg Mack, David Rem, and ‘M M’. Preserved within an English historic house library since the 19th century, it is very likely the most outstanding example remaining in private hands.
Mercator’s Tabulae Geographicae represents the foundations of his grand atlas project. It brings together the four separate part-issues of ‘modern maps’ that were completed during his lifetime: Gallia, Belgium inferior, and Germania (published in 1585), and Italia (published in 1589). Examples are found containing the first three parts only or, as here, with all four parts in one volume. Around 1590, two extra maps of Europe and the world were added to some copies, including the present example, by Gerard’s son Rumold. Unusually, this copy is further supplemented by four engraved maps of Asia, Africa, America and Brazil by Cornelis de Jode. Rumold later completed his father’s atlas with the addition of various other parts: the resulting work, published in 1595, was the first to use the name Atlas for a collection of maps.
The present volume is distinguished by its truly extraordinary colouring, which we know from dated signatures was executed in the years immediately after publication by the most celebrated Nuremberg colourists of the era. The Mack family were ‘among the most active and important Briefmaler and Illuministen in the city in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries […] The family members painted in a refined style, imitative of miniature painting and manuscript illumination, employing a diverse palette of transparent and opaque colours’ (Dackerman). As such, their work was in high demand and in 1581 a Nuremberg court records that 'Georg Mack (the Elder), Illuminist, because of his disobedience and delayed completion of a piece of artwork belonging to the Prince-Elector of the Palatine is to be taken to a tower, the work brought to him and completed there, and when it is done, interrogate him.' That such an important patron thought it worthwhile to pursue Mack through the courts gives some idea as to the magnitude of his reputation.
Georg Mack the Elder (fl. 1556-1601) is associated with the fine colouring of engraved works by Jost Amman and Dürer, and with an exceptional Ortelius atlas held at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek. The younger Georg Mack ran his own prestigious studio from 1582 into the early decades of the 17th century. He was responsible for colouring a set of the Plantin Polyglot Bible (the Estelle Doheny copy, sold Christie’s, New York, 1988) for Neytard von Thüngen, Prince-Bishop of Bamberg (1545-1598), and is perhaps best known for his work colouring deluxe copies of Besler’s monumental botanical publication Hortus Eystettensis (Nuremberg: 1613). The signatures in the present volume appear similar to those of Georg Mack the Younger, so it is perhaps most likely that he, rather than his father, undertook the commission. David Rem appears alongside the younger Mack in a directory of Nuremberg colourists from 1592-1610 (Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, 1868), and ‘M M’ is not yet identified but is perhaps another member of the Mack family. As Susan Dackerman states, signing their work in gold indicates that it was ‘highly valued by, and most likely recognizable to, patrons, and the use of such a precious pigment reinforces the prominence of their status’.
References: Van der Krogt 1:001.1-1:004.1; Dackerman, S. Painted prints: the revelation of color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque engravings, etchings & woodcuts (2002).
4 parts in one volume, folio (397 x 283mm). Engraved portrait of Mercator, a total of 79 engraved maps, all but one double-page, woodcut initials and ornaments, exceptionally coloured and illuminated in gold and silver by the Mack workshop of Nuremberg from 1591-1593. Comprising:
Part I [1585], Galliae [France]: engraved title signed and dated in gold ‘David. Rem. 1593’, portrait of Mercator signed in gold ‘Ge: Mack’, letterpress dedication, index leaves, letterpress preliminaries bound after title in part III, 2 engraved maps [the world and Europe] by Rumold Mercator, 4 additional engraved maps [Asia, Africa, America and Brazil] by Cornelis de Jode, 16 engraved maps, all but Boulongne comitatus double-page. Van der Krogt 1:001.1, variant Ac.
Part II [1585], Belgii inferioris [the Low Countries]: engraved title signed and dated in gold ‘Georg Mack 1593’, letterpress preliminaries, index leaves, 9 engraved maps. Van der Krogt 1:001.2, variant Ab.
Part III [1585], Germaniae tabulae geographicae [Germany, Austria, Poland, and Hungary]: engraved title initialled in gold ‘M M’, letterpress preliminaries, index leaves, 25 engraved maps (lacking Alsatia inferior), additional engraved map of Denmark by Braun and Hogenberg. Van der Krogt 1:003.1, variant Aa.
Part IV [1589], Italiae, Sclavoniae et Grecae [Italy, the Balkans and Greece]: engraved title signed and dated ‘Georg Mack 1591’, letterpress dedication, 22 engraved maps. Van der Krogt 1:004.1, variant A.
A full contents list and condition report is available upon request.
19th-century burgundy morocco, ornamental metallic corner-pieces and clasps, spine lettered in gilt, all edges gilt (lightly rubbed and marked, minor distortion to metal furniture). Provenance: Viscount Gage (bookplate, likely that of Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount, 1791-1877) – thence by descent.
Tabulae Geographicae. Duisburg: 1585-1589.
The finest example to come to market: a sumptuous atlas, richly hand-coloured and illuminated in silver and gold by the 16th-century Nuremberg colourists Georg Mack, David Rem, and ‘M M’. Preserved within an English historic house library since the 19th century, it is very likely the most outstanding example remaining in private hands.
Mercator’s Tabulae Geographicae represents the foundations of his grand atlas project. It brings together the four separate part-issues of ‘modern maps’ that were completed during his lifetime: Gallia, Belgium inferior, and Germania (published in 1585), and Italia (published in 1589). Examples are found containing the first three parts only or, as here, with all four parts in one volume. Around 1590, two extra maps of Europe and the world were added to some copies, including the present example, by Gerard’s son Rumold. Unusually, this copy is further supplemented by four engraved maps of Asia, Africa, America and Brazil by Cornelis de Jode. Rumold later completed his father’s atlas with the addition of various other parts: the resulting work, published in 1595, was the first to use the name Atlas for a collection of maps.
The present volume is distinguished by its truly extraordinary colouring, which we know from dated signatures was executed in the years immediately after publication by the most celebrated Nuremberg colourists of the era. The Mack family were ‘among the most active and important Briefmaler and Illuministen in the city in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries […] The family members painted in a refined style, imitative of miniature painting and manuscript illumination, employing a diverse palette of transparent and opaque colours’ (Dackerman). As such, their work was in high demand and in 1581 a Nuremberg court records that 'Georg Mack (the Elder), Illuminist, because of his disobedience and delayed completion of a piece of artwork belonging to the Prince-Elector of the Palatine is to be taken to a tower, the work brought to him and completed there, and when it is done, interrogate him.' That such an important patron thought it worthwhile to pursue Mack through the courts gives some idea as to the magnitude of his reputation.
Georg Mack the Elder (fl. 1556-1601) is associated with the fine colouring of engraved works by Jost Amman and Dürer, and with an exceptional Ortelius atlas held at the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek. The younger Georg Mack ran his own prestigious studio from 1582 into the early decades of the 17th century. He was responsible for colouring a set of the Plantin Polyglot Bible (the Estelle Doheny copy, sold Christie’s, New York, 1988) for Neytard von Thüngen, Prince-Bishop of Bamberg (1545-1598), and is perhaps best known for his work colouring deluxe copies of Besler’s monumental botanical publication Hortus Eystettensis (Nuremberg: 1613). The signatures in the present volume appear similar to those of Georg Mack the Younger, so it is perhaps most likely that he, rather than his father, undertook the commission. David Rem appears alongside the younger Mack in a directory of Nuremberg colourists from 1592-1610 (Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, 1868), and ‘M M’ is not yet identified but is perhaps another member of the Mack family. As Susan Dackerman states, signing their work in gold indicates that it was ‘highly valued by, and most likely recognizable to, patrons, and the use of such a precious pigment reinforces the prominence of their status’.
References: Van der Krogt 1:001.1-1:004.1; Dackerman, S. Painted prints: the revelation of color in Northern Renaissance & Baroque engravings, etchings & woodcuts (2002).
4 parts in one volume, folio (397 x 283mm). Engraved portrait of Mercator, a total of 79 engraved maps, all but one double-page, woodcut initials and ornaments, exceptionally coloured and illuminated in gold and silver by the Mack workshop of Nuremberg from 1591-1593. Comprising:
Part I [1585], Galliae [France]: engraved title signed and dated in gold ‘David. Rem. 1593’, portrait of Mercator signed in gold ‘Ge: Mack’, letterpress dedication, index leaves, letterpress preliminaries bound after title in part III, 2 engraved maps [the world and Europe] by Rumold Mercator, 4 additional engraved maps [Asia, Africa, America and Brazil] by Cornelis de Jode, 16 engraved maps, all but Boulongne comitatus double-page. Van der Krogt 1:001.1, variant Ac.
Part II [1585], Belgii inferioris [the Low Countries]: engraved title signed and dated in gold ‘Georg Mack 1593’, letterpress preliminaries, index leaves, 9 engraved maps. Van der Krogt 1:001.2, variant Ab.
Part III [1585], Germaniae tabulae geographicae [Germany, Austria, Poland, and Hungary]: engraved title initialled in gold ‘M M’, letterpress preliminaries, index leaves, 25 engraved maps (lacking Alsatia inferior), additional engraved map of Denmark by Braun and Hogenberg. Van der Krogt 1:003.1, variant Aa.
Part IV [1589], Italiae, Sclavoniae et Grecae [Italy, the Balkans and Greece]: engraved title signed and dated ‘Georg Mack 1591’, letterpress dedication, 22 engraved maps. Van der Krogt 1:004.1, variant A.
A full contents list and condition report is available upon request.
19th-century burgundy morocco, ornamental metallic corner-pieces and clasps, spine lettered in gilt, all edges gilt (lightly rubbed and marked, minor distortion to metal furniture). Provenance: Viscount Gage (bookplate, likely that of Henry Hall Gage, 4th Viscount, 1791-1877) – thence by descent.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts