Two extremely early maps on one leaf. Brittany and the Channel Islands, and northwest Spain, part of present-day Portugal, and the Azores. The latter is the first map of the islands. Beyond the first printed atlases derived from the work of Ptolemy, the most important atlas was the ‘Isolario’. This work was an atlas of the islands of the world. Bear in mind that at the time, the easiest form of travel and trade was by sea. Hence ports and islands were of greater importance. The first such atlas was published in c.1485 by Bartolommeo dalli Sonetti and was confined to the eastern Mediterranean. The second, containing this map, was by Benedetto Bordone (c.1460-c.1535) and covered the whole world. The maps as here are set within a leaf of text. This first map is of Brittany and includes the unnamed Channel Islands. It extends along the Atlantic coast beyond the mouth of the River Loire. On the verso is a map of the Iberian coastline with the Azores illustrated just offshore. It is the first map of the Azores. Bordone was born in Padua, Italy, and his interest in science soon settled on geography. He started work on this ‘Isolario’ early, a manuscript in Florence is believed to date from before 1524. The first edition was entitled ‘Libro di Benedetto Bordone’. All the three subsequent editions of this work carried the title of ‘Isolario’. Provenance: Clive A. Burden Ltd.; private Jersey collection. Armstrong (1996); Highbarger (1996); Karrow (1993) pp. 89-93, 13/10 & 11; Nordenskiöld (1979) 27; Phillips (1909-) 162; Shirley (2004) T.Bord 1a; Tolias (2007).