Jode, Gerard de: Primae Partis Asiae accurata delineatio habens nomina antiqua et recentia continens Turcici Imperii magnam partem ac Sophorum seu Persarum Regnum observatis ubique cum longitudinis tum latitudinis gradib. Auctore Iacobo Gastaldo pedemontano. Gerhardis de Jode excudebat. Antwerp 1578
Map, Copper engraving, 30.4 x 50.7 cms, first edition, black and white, minor restoration at centrefold, Latin text on verso.
De Jode follows the practice familair to his readers through earlier, Ptolemaic, atlases in dividing Asia into numbered sections, rather than following political boundaries, so this ‘first part of Asia’ contains the greater part of the Turkish empire and the empire of Persia. De Jode credits Gastaldi, and many of his maps are based on Italian and German prototypes. He was an important businessman in Antwerp, and got some of his inspiration at the Frankfurt Fairs where he was able to buy many maps which he copied or resold (see Koeman). He was an associate of Plantin and Ortelius, but his relationship with the latter seems to have soured as their rivalry intensified. They embarked on similar revolutionary projects at the same time: to create books of maps, engraved by the same hand and in a uniform format, drawing on the best cartographic sources Europe had to offer - the modern concept of the atlas. De Jode had more copper plates and was 18 years Ortelius’ senior, Ortelius got there first and seems to have used his influential contacts to prevent De Jode from getting the necessary official approval for his book, in order to protect sales of his own Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. De Jode received ecclesiastical approval in 1573, the imperial imprimatur in 1575 and royal approbation only in 1577, so it was not until 1578 that the first edition of the Speculum orbis terrarum was published. A second edition was published by de Jode’s son Cornelis in 1593. Ortelius had won – the Theatrum had a firm grip on the market and both editions of the Speculum are very rare.
£1650
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