Noted Dutch golden age cartographer Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer (c.1534-c.1606) released his first publication Spieghel der zeevaerdt in 1584. It combined an atlas of nautical charts and sailing directions with instructions for navigating European coastal waters and was an immediate success.
An English translation, The mariner’s mirrour, was commissioned by the Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton in 1587. The maps are some of the earliest engraved in England, and the atlas, as well as being the first printed sea atlas, was the first book to standardise symbols of buoys and beacons.
The volume in question was published by J Charlewood of London in 1588. The folio includes an engraved coat of arms for Sir Christopher Hatton.
It sold for £150,000 from Daniel Crouch Rare Books at this year’s second online staging of Firsts.
The book fair, run by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association, usually has one physical staging per year in June. This year it was called off due to coronavirus and went virtual, with this most recent second edition running online from September 10-14.
