ORONCE FINE. Nova, Et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio. Paris, 1541.

Oronce FINE (1494-1555)Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis DescriptioParis: Christianus Wechelus, 1541Sheet: 11 2/8” x 16 2/8” to the neat line, framed: 24” x 28 4/8”Single sheet, matted and framedWoodcut double-cordiform world map, the title within a ribbon banner along the top edge, Wechelis’ imprint centre lower edge, showing the world in two hemispheres, the right being mostly “Terra Australis’, ‘recently discovered, but not yet explored’ and South America, the left, Europe and North America, surrounded by an elaborate decorative border.Provenance: The Goodyear Collection, purchased September 1984, their sale Rachel Davis Fine Arts, September 21st, 2013, lot 477. Europeans were intensely interested in the process of exploration and discovery as it occurred in the early 16th Century. In 1531 Johann Huttich and Simon Grynaeus published “Novus Orbis Regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum,” an extraordinary collection of accounts of voyages of discovery to the Americas, Asia and Afri