Heylyn - Cosmographie - 1669

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THE NEW WORLD BETWEEN COLONIES AND EMPIRE: AMERICAS INVENTED IN THE 1669 COSMOGRAPHY
Very interesting is the map of North America, where Mexico is above New England. Fascinating, imprecise and yet to be defined.
Edition of 1669 of Peter Heylyn's Cosmography, one of the most articulated geographic syntheses of seventeenth-century English thought, 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 an America still in formation, traversed 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.

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 geographies that seem surprising today and Mexico placed above New England.
FOUR GREAT GEOGRAPHIC 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 between €2,500 and €3,500; well-preserved copies can exceed €4,000.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary full leather binding with raised spine, signs of wear on hinges and boards. Red and black typographic title-page and an additional allegorical engraved title-page signed J. Fillan, with edges restored; both with stains and signs of use. Text laid out in two columns.
Initial imprimatur leaf bound at the end of the Preface. Binding errors: fascicles 2C2 and 3 inverted. Small gap on leaf [3]K3 with loss of some letters. The white leaf [4]V6 is present.
Brunettes and physiological foxing. The four large geographic maps have been extracted and mounted on modern card stock: they show some gaps.
In old books, with a long history, there may be 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
Cosmography in Four Books containing the Chorography 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 is 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 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 classify and order, 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 Western powers.

The distinction between Chorography and History assumes here a particular meaning: the Americas are not only 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 the European imaginary 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 profoundly hierarchical and orderly worldview.

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, fifth, represents an advanced phase of the publishing 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 aimed at a cultured 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, edizione 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, census of the 1669 edition in international libraries.