Heylyn - Cosmographie - 1669

THE NEW WORLD BETWEEN COLONIES AND EMPIRE: THE AMERICAS INVENTED IN THE 1669 COSMOGRAPHY
Very interesting is the map of North America, where Mexico sits above New England. Fascinating, imprecise, and still to be defined.
Edition of 1669 of Peter Heylyn's Cosmography, one of the most detailed geographic syntheses of the English XVIIth century, here revisited 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 renders an America still in formation, traversed by colonial dynamics, confessional conflicts, and processes of territorial appropriation. The Cosmography thus becomes 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 spine in raised bands, signs of wear to bindings and boards. Typographic title in red and black and additional engraved frontispiece signed J. Fillan, with restored edges; both with stains and signs of use. Text set in two columns.
Initial imprimatur leaf bound at the end of the Preface. Binding errors: fascicles 2C 2 and 3 inverted. Minor lacuna on leaf [3]K3 with loss of some letters. White leaf [4]V6 present.
Browning and natural aging. The four large maps have been removed and mounted on modern card; they show some gaps.
In old books, with a long history, some 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 is the map of North America, where Mexico sits above New England. Fascinating, imprecise, and little defined.
In Heylyn's geographic system, the Americas occupy a strategic and symbolic position. It is not merely distant territories, but a space in which the ambitions—political and religious—of seventeenth-century Europe are projected.
The American continent is described through a double lens: on one hand as a geographic reality to be classified and ordered, on the other as a theatre 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 special 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, able to turn space into narrative and territory into dominion.
In this sense, the Cosmography is not merely a descriptive work, but an ideological device that contributes to the construction of the European imaginary of the Americas.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Peter Heylyn (1599–1662) was an English ecclesiastic, historian, and geographer, educated at Oxford. A supporter of the monarchy and the Anglican Church, he developed a profoundly hierarchical and orderly view of the world.
His Cosmography represents the attempt to organize geographic knowledge into 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 reprints. The 1669 edition, the fifth, represents an advanced phase of the publishing project.
Printed for Anne Seile and other London booksellers, it bears witness to the maturity of English book production in the seventeenth century and the growing demand for geographical works intended for an educated audience 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, inventories of the 1669 edition in international libraries.