Heylyn - Cosmographie - 1669

THE NEW WORLD BETWEEN COLONIES AND EMPIRE: AMERICA INVENTED IN THE 1669 COSMOGRAPHY
Very interesting the map of North America, where Mexico is above New England. Fascinating, imprecise and still to be defined.
Edition of 1669 of Peter Heylyn’s Cosmography, one of the most articulated geographic syntheses of seventeenth-century English scholarship, here reread with particular attention to the representation of the Americas. In this work, the New World emerges as a central space in the construction of European geographic knowledge, not only described but interpreted according to a political, religious, and cultural logic. Heylyn presents America still in formation, crossed by colonial dynamics, confessional conflicts, and processes of territorial appropriation. The Cosmography thus configures itself as a tool for reading and organizing the world, in which the Americas assume a decisive role in redefining global balances.
MARKET VALUE
Complete copies generally range between 2,500 and 3,500 euros; well-preserved copies can exceed 4,000 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full calf binding with raised bands on the spine, signs of wear to the joints and boards. Red and black typographic title on the title page and an additional engraved allegorical title page signed J. Fillan, with restored edges; both with stains and signs of use. Text set in two columns.
Imprimatur leaf attached at the end of the Preface. Binding errors: fascicules 2C 2 and 3 inverted. Small gap on leaf [3]K3 with loss of some letters. The white leaf [4]V6 present.
Browning and natural foxing. The four large maps have been extracted and mounted on modern card; they show some gaps.
In old books, with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present that are not always noted in the description.
Collation: pp. 14 nn.; 272; 4 nn.; 226; 2 nn.; 230; 2 nn.; 162; 40 nn.; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Cosmographie in Four Books containing the Chorographie and Historie of the Whole World, and all the Principal Kingdoms, Provinces, Seas and Isles thereof.
London, Anne Seile, 1669.
Peter Heylyn.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Very interesting the map of North America, where Mexico is above New England. Fascinating, imprecise and little defined.
In Heylyn’s geographical system, the Americas occupy a strategic and symbolic position. It is not simply a distant territory, but a space where the political and religious ambitions of seventeenth-century Europe are projected.
The American continent is described through a double lens: on one hand as a geographical reality to be classified and ordered, on the other as a theater of colonial expansion. Heylyn interprets the Americas according to an implicit hierarchy that reflects European centrality, placing the New World within a global framework dominated by England and the Western powers.
The distinction between Chorography and History takes on here a particular meaning: the Americas are not just places, but evolving stories, territories whose identity is built through conquests, explorations, and conflicts. Geography thus becomes a tool of intellectual and symbolic control, capable of turning space into narrative and territory into dominance.
In this sense, the Cosmography is not merely a descriptive work, but an ideological device that contributes to constructing the European imagination of the Americas.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Peter Heylyn (1599–1662) was an English cleric, historian and geographer, educated at Oxford. A supporter of the monarchy and the Anglican Church, he developed a vision of the world that was deeply hierarchical and orderly.
His Cosmography represents an attempt to organize geographic knowledge in a systematic form, integrating territorial description and historical interpretation according to a European and confessional perspective.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Cosmography was first published in 1652 and went through numerous reissues. The 1669 edition, fifth, represents an advanced phase of the editorial project.
Printed for Anne Seile and other London booksellers, it testifies to the maturity of seventeenth-century English book production and the growing demand for geographic works intended for an educated public interested in the global dimension.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ESTC R18329.
Wing, Donald G., Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland 1641–1700, H1692A.
British Library Catalogue, Heylyn, Cosmographie, edition 1669.
Shirley, Rodney W., The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472–1700, London, 1983, pp. 430–435.
Burden, Philip D., The Mapping of North America: A List of Printed Maps 1511–1670, London, 1996, pp. 350–360.
Tooley, Ronald V., Maps and Map-makers, London, 1978, pp. 90–95.
WorldCat/OCLC, censimenti dell’edizione 1669 in biblioteche internazionali.