![MORETUS, Johannes (c. 1543-1610, son-in-law of Christopher Plantin, printer, publisher, poet). Autograph New Year's Sonnet, in Latin, signed acrostically IOANNES MORETUS, dated 1st January 1577, addressed to ABRAHAM ORTELIUS (1527-98), royal cosmographer; author of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published by Plantin). [Antwerp,] 1st January 1577.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01595_1052_000(102654).jpg?w=1)
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MORETUS, Johannes (c. 1543-1610, son-in-law of Christopher Plantin, printer, publisher, poet). Autograph New Year's Sonnet, in Latin, signed acrostically IOANNES MORETUS, dated 1st January 1577, addressed to ABRAHAM ORTELIUS (1527-98), royal cosmographer; author of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published by Plantin). [Antwerp,] 1st January 1577.
Chancery half sheet (277 x 181 mm), no watermark. 3-line heading Dno Abrahamo Hortelio ..., 14-line verse, incipit: I, procul, 1, procul, proculi, modo noxia Pestis, 2-line subscript Tibi Addictissimus Amicus ... On verso a quotation from Horace's epistles: quid nunc dicam facere in regione Pedana [pray, what do you in far-away Pedum?]. Cursive script. Modern cloth portfolio.
Fine calligraphic New Year's poem by the distinguished scholarly printer to the celebrated cartographer. References to Ortelius's absence [from Antwerp, where his great atlas was in constant production at this time] are explained by the plague year 1576 and the Spanish sack of the city. Autograph manuscripts by the elder Moretus [Jan Moerentorf] outside the Plantin-Moretus Museum are OF THE GREATEST RARITY.
Chancery half sheet (277 x 181 mm), no watermark. 3-line heading Dno Abrahamo Hortelio ..., 14-line verse, incipit: I, procul, 1, procul, proculi, modo noxia Pestis, 2-line subscript Tibi Addictissimus Amicus ... On verso a quotation from Horace's epistles: quid nunc dicam facere in regione Pedana [pray, what do you in far-away Pedum?]. Cursive script. Modern cloth portfolio.
Fine calligraphic New Year's poem by the distinguished scholarly printer to the celebrated cartographer. References to Ortelius's absence [from Antwerp, where his great atlas was in constant production at this time] are explained by the plague year 1576 and the Spanish sack of the city. Autograph manuscripts by the elder Moretus [Jan Moerentorf] outside the Plantin-Moretus Museum are OF THE GREATEST RARITY.