Carta Particolare dell' Isole de Islandia e Frislandia con l'Isolette de Fare

Large and important map of Iceland first issued in 1646-7 and based on early Italian geography prevalent in the late 16th century. Of note is the inclusion of the large and mythical island of Friesland.

Dudley is notable for several important “firsts” when his famous atlas was published in 1646-7. It is the first time that the Mercator Projection was used consistently in an atlas, it is the first time that magnetic deviation was used on maps, it was the first sea atlas covering the whole world and it was the first atlas which attempted to show ocean currents and prevailing winds.

Despite these innovations, the geography of Iceland on this map is antiquated in comparison to Dutch maps based on the survey of Joris Carolus first published in 1621 and indeed the even earlier map of Bishop Gudbrandur used first by Ortelius in 1590 and then mapmakers of his generation. Dudley seems to have used the shape of the island from much earlier Italian map makers dating back to the second half of the 16th century. The detail is mainly coastal as befits a sea chart but modern scholarship has shown that it is repetitive and very inaccurate even for the time.

Of further note is the inclusion of the island of Friesland. This mythical island was "discovered" by the Zeno brothers, now known to be a fictitious voyage supposedly made in the 14th century but at the time, it was the basis for the claims of the Venetian Republic to large tracts of the mainland of North America. Even on maps of the region published during this period, Friesland had always quite a nebulous landmass; not so for Dudley, who drew it with conviction and populated it with many place names.

Despite its academic shortcomings, this map is much in demand by collectors and scholars of Icelandic history, both for its beauty as well as its oddity. It is also believed to be the largest atlas map focusing on the island published to that date.

The example offered on this occasion is from the second, and last, folio edition of the atlas, published in 1661.