Orbis Terrarum Nova et Accuratissima Tabula. Auctore Nicolao Visscher.

Rare c.17th superbly embellish Dutch map, with full original period hand colouring of Nicholas Visscher’s highly influential double hemisphere map of the World, first published in 1658.

As noted by Rodney Shirley:

. . . Visscher’s new woldmap in two hemispheres can be regarded as the master forerunner of a number of highly decorative Dutch world maps produced throughout the remainder of the century.  Essentially based upon Blaeu’s [wall map of the World] of 1648 . . . the distinct attractiveness of many of the later seventeenth century Dutch world maps can be found in their border decorations . . . [in Visscher’s map], artist Nicolaes Berchem has introduced dramatic classical scenes representing the rape of Perephone, Zeus being carried across the heavens in an eagle-drawn chariot, Poseidon commanding his entourage, and Demeter receiving the fruits of the Earth.

Visscher’s map also includes a set of smaller polar hemispheric projections at the top and bottom of the map.  Visscher’s world map would become the proto-type for not only a generation of large format Dutch World maps, it also inspired a series of reduced sized biblical world maps by Stoopendahl and others.