ONE OF ONLY THREE KNOWN EXAMPLES OF THE FIRST STATE, and the ONLY EXAMPLE COMPLETE WITH ALL BORDERS. Isaak Verbiest is presumed to be the brother of Pieter Verbiest, both active in cartography although more is known at the hand of Pieter. Most of his known work was issued in partnership with him. This map of France however bears no such connection. The title and imprint appear upper right and is dated 1628. The cartouche is surmounted by the French Coat of Arms and below it the arms of ‘Les Peres de France’. The map is derived from that of Pieter van den Keere of 1616 but bears a different configuration to the four decorative panels. Portraits of King Louis XIII and Queen Anne now occupy the two upper corners. Schilder identified that the town views are in fact drawn from the map of France by Jodocus Hondius c.1629 although that of La Rochelle is from an unknown source. Those of the figures along the sides representing the different classes are taken from Claes Jansz. Visscher’s undated map and here reversed. The map itself extends to the Zuyder-Zee in the north and eastwards to Rome.

There are just three known examples according to Schilder. That in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris lacks the borders. A second example was sold at Sotheby’s London 11 June 1982 as part of an atlas factice as lot 9. It too lacked the borders which had been cut and the 13 town views had been cut and mounted at the end. This example is therefore the only known complete one of the first state surviving. Provenance: ‘Atlas Iprensis’, private Belgian Collection; dispersed Sotheby’s London 29 April 2014 lot 71. Schilder (2000) ‘Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica’ VI map 84 pp. 353-4; Van der Heijden, Hank (1995) ‘Atlas Imprensis, 1570-1639’, in Caert Thresoor 14 no. 2 pp. 25-34, no. 19.