Lusitania

Quad, Matthias Portugal. "Portugalia que olim Lusitania, novissima et exactissima descriptio. Auctore Vernando Aluaro Secco.." Cologine Johann Bussemacher 1596
Copper engraved map of Portugal after Vernando Aluaro Secco from Mattias Quad's "Europea totius orbis terrarum praestantissimae.." Black & white; Latin descriptive text to verso; old ink note.
The map is dated 1590 in the title cartouche. Monsters and ship to sea.; shield within the map with long desription about Aluaro beside it. Dark impression; evenly toned; ink number to upper right corner; upper centrefold split repaired

Matthias Quad (1557-1613)
was a geographer, humanist and engraver who studied in Heidelberg and later worked from both Cologne and Heidelberg.
Quad was an important figure in Cologne, publishing under a number of pseudonyms as well as his own name.
Frans Hogenberg and Georg Braun, involved Quad in engraving some of the maps in their great town book, the "Civitates Orbis Terrarum".
Quad helped to establish Cologne as the centre of German map production and consequently established the city's important role in terms of European cartography at this time.
Quad collaborated with the Cologine publisher Johann Bussemacher to publish a quarto atlas of Europe: "Europea totius orbis terrarum praestantissimae." in 1596. This was expanded into the "Geographisches Handtbuch" in 1600, with 82 maps and finally the" Fasciculus Geographicus" in 1608 with 86 maps.
182 by 265mm (7¼ by 10½ inches).   ref: 2021  €400