Apuliae Massapiae i Nova Calabri ac Salentini, et Lucaniae descriptio: auctore Phil. Cluverio

The rare French edition, engraved by Henri le Roy.

Historical-geographical map taken from the Italia Antiqua by Philipp Cluver (1580-1623) - also known by the Latin name Cluverius and the Italian name Cluverio - German geographer and founder of historical geography. Between 1607 and 1610 he traveled through various European regions, touching England, Germany, France and Italy, where he made a further journey between 1616 and 1618. The famous work had a first edition in 1624 in Leiden, with maps engraved by Nicolas van Geelkercken (1585-1656).

Numerous reprints of Cluver's work are known both in Leiden and in other European cities; all of them include maps based on Geelkercken's originals, but engraved by other artists.

The maps were reprinted, in reduced form, primarily by Hendrick Hondius.  The rarest reprint was published in Paris in 1659 with the plates redone by the French engraver Henri le Roy as shown in the left corner of our map.

Henri Le Roy (1579-1652) was an engraver and publisher born in Rotterdam and married in Paris 1604. He produced a number of designs inspired by the natural world, incorporating birds, insects and plants into his work. Such is the case in this series of seven frieze designs, which could have been put to use as designs for architectural ornaments, textiles or other objects.

In the field of cartography are known some maps, including a map of the world, derived from Hendrick Hondius.

Etching, with coeval coloring of the outlines, in excellent condition.