Henri Abraham Chatelain | Atlas historique, Amsterdam, 1719-1721, 7 volumes, contemporary calf gilt

Henri Abraham Chatelain

Atlas historique. Amsterdam: Châtelain, 1714-1721

7 volumes, folio (447 x 276mm), 284 engraved plates, views, maps, tables, genealogical charts, etc. (many large, folding, or double-page), engraved allegorical titles, printed titles in red and black with engraved vignettes, volumes 3 and 5 lacking frontispieces

Contents of individual volumes comprise:

Volume 1: 1721, 45 plates, many folding, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of the ancient world, and contemporary Italy, France and Spain, small marginal tear with loss to one table page (not affecting text), lower joint slightly cracked;

Volume 2: 1720, 37 plates, many folding, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of ancient Rome and the inheritance of the Roman Empire;

Volume 3: 1720, 30 plates, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of England, Scotland, Ireland, the Swiss territories, Savoy, Lorraine and Venice, with geographical and genealogical tables for the second volume, small repaired closed tear to plate no. 47, 8cm closed tear to map no. 62;

Volume 4: 1714, 34 plates, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of the Scandinavian and Baltic lands, Poland, Muscovy, Turkey and the Near East;

Volume 5: 1719, 58 plates, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of Asia, including the Babylonian and Greek empires, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and the Holy Land, Persia, Tartary, the Mogul Empire, and China, Japan and Siam, with a dedicatory epistle to Eugene François of Savoy and Piedmont;

Volume 6: 1719, 39 plates, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, of Africa, South, Central and North America, and the Pacific;

Volume 7: 1720, supplement with 44 plates, depicting maps, genealogies, tables and other illustrations, addressing chronology, the Occident and the Orient, heraldry, the regions and ruling powers of France, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal, military history, religion and mythology, with a dedicatory epistle to Jean Antoine Schafgotsch, browning and scattered spotting to fold-out plates;

Contemporary calf, spines with raised bands in eight compartments, later morocco label to second compartment, other compartments gilt, some marginal dampstaining, extremities and spine rubbed

A VERY GOOD SET. Henri Abraham Chatelain (1648-1743) was a Dutch cartographer, whose Atlas Historique was one of the most expansive encyclopedias of the age, covering not only geography, but global history, politics and genealogy. The maps were engraved by Chatelain himself. It was initially published in Amsterdam between 1705 and 1721, and subsequently by Chatelain between 1732-1739. Volume 6 features particularly fine maps of the Americas.

PROVENANCE:

"A Gio: Franc[is]co van der Elst", ownership inscription to front free endpaper of first volume

LITERATURE:

Koeman II, ch. 1-7; Phillips, Atlases, 579; Goffart, Historical Atlases, p. 134