Norumbega Et Virginia

Cologne, 1598. No Binding. Very Good. 7 1/8 x 9 inches. Fine condition. Attractively engraved and very rare work that shows the area "at a period just before the English sent a number of voyages to explore and settle the coast" (Burden). There is a possibility that the Metellus pre-dated the Wytfliet map of the same area; there is no question, however, that one was derived from the other. See Burden 118 on the question of precedence. Both maps were among the first to have "Virginia" in their titles. An intriguing aspect of the map is that it presents the Norumbega legend at the height of its prominence. The term on the map is used both as a designation for the entire region and what is presented as the major city in the entire Northeast. The legend held that Norumbega was the luxurious capitol of an advanced Indian civilization. All of this reflects, in fact, Europeans' near total ignorance of the Northeast at the time. A most telling "silence" on the map is absence of New York Harbor, which Verrazano had explored three quarters of a century before this map appeared. Burden 118.