Antonio de Alcedo and G.A. Thompson | Atlas to Thompson’s Alcedo; or Dictionary of America & West Indies, 1816

Antonio de Alcedo and G. A. Thompson

Atlas to Thompson’s Alcedo; or Dictionary of America & West Indies; collated with all the most recent authorities and composed chiefly from scarce and original documents, for that work, by A. Arrowsmith, Hydrographer to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent. London, Printed by George Smeeton, 1816

Folio atlas (660 x 525mm.), 5 hand-coloured wall maps by Aaron Arrowsmith on 19 double-page or folding engraved sheets, index mounted on front pastedown, later calf gilt, blind stamp coat of arms of Hugh Cecil Earl of Lonsdale to upper board, spine with raised bands in eight compartments

[with:]

The Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies, Containing an Entire Translation of the Spanish work of Colonel Don Antonio de Lacedo... with large additions and complications.... London: James Carpenter, [1812-1815]

5 volumes, 4to (270 x 210mm.), contemporary calf gilt with blind stamp coat of arms of Hugh Cecil Earl of Lonsdale to upper board, spine with raised bands in six compartments

THE EARL OF LONDSDALE'S COPY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PRINTED ATLAS OF THE AMERICAS OF ITS TIME, containing foundation wall maps of the region by the greatest British cartographer of his generation. The atlas is accompanied by a first edition set of the text of Thompson’s translation and expansion of Alcedo’s classic work on the Americas.

Aaron Arrowsmith was the most influential and respected map publisher of the early nineteenth century. His cartography involved collecting the best information available from a diverse range of sources, considering the merits of any contradictory data, and compiling this into the most accurate depiction possible of an area. He specialised in large multi-sheet maps, which were generally separately issued and are now scarce.

The present atlas is an early version with the following maps:

(1) A Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America...A. Arrowsmith...January 1st 1795. Additions to 1811 Additions to June 1814.

(2) A Map of the United States of America Drawn from a number of Critical Researches By A. Arrowsmith...Jan 1st 1796. Additions to 1815.

(3) A New Map of Mexico and adjacent provinces compiled from original documents by A. Arrowsmith...5th October 1810. Additions to 1815.

(4) Chart of the West Indies and Spanish Dominions in North America by A. Arrowsmith... 1803... Additions to 1815.

(5) Outlines of the Physical and Political Divisions of South America: Delineated by A. Arrowsmith partly from scarce and original documents published before the year 1806 but principally from manuscript maps & surveys made between the years 1771 and 1806. Corrected from accurate astronomical observations to 1810...Published 4th January 1811... Additions to 1814.

PROVENANCE:

Hugh Cecil Lowther (1857–1944), 5th Earl of Lonsdale, coat of arms to upper board, bookplates

LITERATURE:

Lowndes I, 26; James C. Martin and Robert Sidney Martin, Maps of Texas and the Southwest 1513-1900 (Texas: Texas State Historical Association, 1984); Sabin 683 (“Copies are sometimes found with an atlas of… maps by Arrowsmith, but they are rare”)