Heylyn - Cosmographie - 1669

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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 geographical syntheses of seventeenth-century English scholarship, 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 geographical knowledge, not only described but interpreted according to a political, religious and cultural logic. Heylyn presents an America still in formation, traversed by colonial dynamics, confessional conflicts, and processes of territorial appropriation. The Cosmography thus appears as a tool for reading and organizing the world, in which the Americas assume a decisive role in redefining global balances.

WHY TO BUY
THE NEW WORLD IN 1669 – A grand seventeenth-century cosmography that documents how Europe represented and interpreted the Americas during the age of colonial expansion.
AN AMERICA STILL TO BE DRAWN – Particularly fascinating is the North American map, with geography that seems surprising today and Mexico placed above New England.
FOUR GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS – The cartographic apparatus offers a vivid visual testimony of a world still incompletely known and continually redefined.
GEOGRAPHY, POWER AND EMPIRE – Heylyn does not merely describe territories: he tells the new global order of the Seventeenth Century, between explorations, colonization, religion and competition among European powers.

MARKET VALUE
Complete copies generally range from 2,500 to 3,500 euros; well-preserved copies can exceed 4,000 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full-Leather binding with raised bands on the spine, signs of wear to the hinges and boards. Red and black typographic 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.
Initial imprimatur sheet bound at the end of the Preface. Binding errors: fascicles 2C 2 and 3 reversed. Small gap on the leaf [3]K3 with loss of some letters. Present the blank sheet [4]V6.
browning and physiological foxing. The four large geographical maps have been removed and mounted on modern card; they show some gaps.
In old books, with a centuries-long history, there may be some imperfections 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 geographical system, the Americas occupy a strategic and symbolic position. It is not merely distant territories, but a space where Europe’s political and religious ambitions of the seventeenth century 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 in a global framework dominated by England and 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 domination.

In this sense, the Cosmography is not merely a descriptive work, but an ideological device that contributes to the construction of European imagery of the Americas.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Peter Heylyn (1599–1662) was an English clergyman, historian and geographer, educated at Oxford. A supporter of the monarchy and the Anglican Church, he developed a world view that was deeply hierarchical and ordered.

His Cosmography represents an 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 reprintings. The 1669 edition, the fifth, represents an advanced phase of the editorial project.
Printed for Anne Seile and other London booksellers, it testifies to the maturity of English book production in the seventeenth century and the growing demand for geographic works intended for an educated audience with interest 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.