Caribbean / West Indies / Americas Richard Ligon... Lot 302

Caribbean / West Indies / Americas Richard Ligon (1585-1662) Topographical description and measurement of the Isle of Barbados in the West Indies with the names of those to whom the houses belong Undated 1674 Very rare French edition of the first map of Barbados during the sugar revolution based on Richard Ligon's map (1657) composed from information received by Captain Jolin Swan, the principal surveyor of the Island Ligon compiled it in the debtor's prison in his London jail after a two-year stay as a planter on the Island. The map is oriented to the East, it identifies many plantations by the names of their owners and the beginning of the foundation of the capital as (Le Pont) and "Bridge", in the middle of the map, a note refers to the land leased by James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle (1580-1636) to a group of merchants after Charles I cancelled the initial grant of the Island to Sir William Courteen (1572-1636): "The ten thousand acres of land belonging to the merchants of London". This map from the 1674 French edition (re-engraved without the flowery decorative details of the English edition) may have been made by René Michault, who engraved other maps for Henri Justel and the printer Louis Billaire Sales runs of this card are rare and it doesn't seem to have come up in nearly 15 years Traces of folds, small stains, good copy ref: 1 map at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, GE BIB*565 (14103)- 1 at the Hunturgton Library, 280365