The William B. Ginsberg collection of World Maps; an epitome of the most beautiful, powerful, and influential cartographical images of the 15th and 16^th centuries. The earliest printed maps condensed and edited information from three “traditions” of map-making: Christian iconography, classical cartography, and contemporary charts. Ginsberg’s collection encapsulates the subtle metamorphosis of this amalgam of art and science, myth and metaphor, discovery and design, in nineteen maps: from the world map of the ‘Rudimentum novitiorum’ (1475), the earliest printed map, in magnificent original hand-colour; to the largest Italian world map published in the 16^th century, Giuseppe Rosaccio’s ‘Universale Descrittione di Tuto il Mondo’ (1657).

A magnificent portolan atlas by Battista Agnese in its original binding, inscribed and attributed to Agnese by the eminent bibliographer Henry Harisse.

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind” (Thomas Paine, ‘Common Sense’, 1775-1776). Welcome to catalogue XV, published to coincide with the first anniversary of the opening of our shop in New York; hence the distinct American flavour - or should we say flavor - with almost a third of the items pertaining to the New World.

We are pleased to announce the publication of Catalogue IX, released for both the opening of our New York gallery and the inaugural TEFAF fair in New York. Fittingly, many of the items in the catalogue deal with new frontiers, from a copy of the terms of Columbus’s journey to America to a globe showing one woman’s plans for a socialist utopia on Mars.