Monday, June 4, 2018

The Map That Got Away: A 1632 French Map of Madeira, Portugal

Recently, I was in Funchal, on the Island of Madeira, Portugal, for work. I had limited free time, but hoped to buy a map of the place if I could find one. The bit of research I did was unable to give me any clues on where I may be able to find an antique map of the place, so on a whim, I stopped in at a shop catering to coin and stamp collectors to see if they may be able to help point me in the right direction.

The owner of the shop didn't have any encouraging news for me, but I noticed, on the wall in a corner of his shop, he did have a couple of maps, one appeared to be a Bellin. When I told him I wanted a local map, he went round to the back and after a few minutes, produced this.


I was pretty excited. It was listed as selling for 170 Euro, but the man in the shop told me he'd accept less if I paid cash (which I didn't have on me in any case).

I asked him if I could take a closer look at the map, which was in matting, and that's when the red flags started popping up. The map did look authentic and original. It was very clean, but the grain of the paper seemed authentic, there was no colour and it seemed right.

When I wanted to see the reverse, however, I realized that it was glued to the backing. That worried me. The owner, to my horror, started trying to pull the map loose from the glue. I was terrified it would tear. It didn't, but he was able to peel enough of it away that I could see a date on it, 1632.

Knowing that I couldn't buy it at that moment anyway, I went back to work and resolved to research it a bit. I came up empty handed. I couldn't find an image of this map, or even one similar to it anywhere. I knew it was probably French, had an approximate year but knew nothing more. So, I turned to twitter.



It took some time, but I got a few helping hands from the twitterverse, and one, particularly helpful reply from the very helpful New York Public Library Map Division. I have no idea how they did this, but they found the origin of this map.





Incredible! They were right! There it was, on page 215 of the microfilm was the map from the store. It even confirmed another concern I had, that there was nothing printed on the reverse of this map. That's because it was on the last page of a chapter in an atlas, and page 216 was blank with a new section beginning on page 217.

My next concern, however, was the glue. My concerns were confirmed by NYPL Maps and also James Roy, who wrote:



I was aware of all these concerns, but I thought, I like the map enough, that even if there are some concerns with it, if I can get it for a good price, it will be worth it.

It's a great looking piece, the ships, the perspective, the way the towns are drawn and the age of the map itself were all so appealing I couldn't believe my luck to have found it.

The problem was, the store had limited hours and I was extremely busy with work. I sent the owner an e-mail to see if I could convince him to stay open a bit longer, or to meet me on a day when he was closed, but the e-mail bounced back. Alas, I had to leave the island without a map.

So, I may have been saved by circumstances from buying a forgery or a map whose quality was greatly compromised by glue. I also learned there are some people out there on twitter who really know their maps and are very generous with their time and information. Still though, I can't help but feel that this one got away from me. I guess I will need to add a map of Madeira to my virtual wish-list!

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