Description

PUBLICATION DETAILS: At left: Autore Ionne With Sculptore Theodoro DeBry Qui et excud.  14”w x 12”h.   State 2 with the “C” in Chesepiooc engraved over the erroneous “E” found on State 1.  Map engraved by Theodore de Bry (1528-1598) from one or more drawings and water colors by John White. 
 
PLATE ERROR: John White, a member of the Roanoke Colony founded by the English on the coast of what is now North Carolina in 1685, made 5 voyages to Virginia and was governor of the colony in 1587.  He painted dozens of water color portraits of Indians and a map of the area.  His map formed the primary basis for the de Bry engraving (this map) published English, Latin, German and French versions of de Bry’s Part I (Virginia) of   his Grands Voyages series.  All were published within a short time period in 1590.  The same map plate with Latin titles was used for all editions.  The map contained the error cited above.  De Bry corrected the plate by engraving a “C” over the “E” producing State 2, then erased the “C” over “E” combination and engraved a stronger “C” forming State 3.  It is not possible to determine the edition of the book for those maps since removed.
 
BURDEN: “Theodor de Bry’s map of Virginia, after John White, is one of the most significant cartographical milestones on colonial North American history. It was the most accurate map drawn in the sixteenth century of any part of that continent. It became the prototype of the area until long after James Moxon’s map in 1671. Most notably those of de Jode 1593, Wytfliet 1597 and Metellus 1598. This is the first map to focus on Virginia (now largely North Carolina), and records the first English attempts at colonisation in the New World.”
 
FIRSTS: This map has several “firsts” including naming the Chesapeake Bay, naming Virginia in a map title, being the first separate map of Virginia, and being the first printed map to show a high degree of detail and accuracy for any part of what is now the US.
 
CONDITION: Verso shows wear and thinning of center.  Irregular light staining at centerfold of image.  Image in very good condition.
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
 
Burden 6,7Mapping of North America, state 2;
 
Christies, Auction 1770, 5 December 2006. Lot 259. Sold for $16,800.
 
Cumming, Southeast in Early Maps, pp. 3, 122-23;
 
De Bry, Theodore. Part I, Grands Voyages, 1590.
 
Fite and Freeman, A Book of Old Maps, 93-5;
 
Lorant, New World, pages 274-5.
 
Stephenson/ McKee, Virginia in Maps, Map I-2.
 
Vavra, Luke A. Exploration and Colonization of the New World 1492-1619: An Analysis of the German Editions [of] Theodore de Bry’s Part I (Virginia) 1590 and Part IV (Caribbean) 1594 of the Grands Voyages. Self- published, 2023. [Available on this site. Free copy with purchase of this map.]

William C. Wooldridge, Mapping Virginia: From the Age of Exploration map #145, p.155.

 
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