Valk / Valck, Gerard (1651/52 – Amsterdam 1726). Regna Hispaniarum atque Portugalliae: Ex recenti, summâ curâ punctorum charactere, Suas in Provincias, Territoria et Dioeceses; Geographicè, Politicè, Ecclesiasticè. With splendid decorated title (25.5 x 32.5 cm) and dedication cartouche (16.5 x 20.5 cm), both with Spanish-German and French-Italian miles indicator resp., a small separate map of Minorca (8.5 x 9 cm), and conventional signs. Coloured

in  the  Course  of  the  Spanish  War  of  Succession
as  a  European  Event

including Mallorca, Minorca and the northern tip of Morocco engraved on 4 joined sheets. 1704. Inscribed: Amstelodm, ex Offic. G. Valk. Cum Privilegio, Potentiß. D. D. Ordinum, Hollandiae et West-frisiae. / by G. Valk, met Privilegie van haar Ed: Groot Mog. de Staaten van Holland en West-vriesland / Annô hôc intercalari MDCCIIII, otherwise as before. 97.5 x 115.5 cm.

Not in Koeman (1969) + Phillips (1909-63), unknown to Tooley’s Dictionary (1979, there only the wall-maps of world and continents of 1680; the Asia map mentioned in IMAGO MUNDI XXXV, p. 31 break 2 as “ca. 1700”). – Whether it perhaps has been contained in the 6 vols. Valk-Atlas Nova totius geographica telluris projecto of ca. 1717 “with (its) 508 maps far larger than any recorded by Koeman” – Sotheby’s London April 4, 1989, lot. 199 – must be left undecided. Also if the description of the British Library signature 18185 (12) concerns this map because is it not marked as a four sheet map as done in comparable cases. So, e. g., as to the Spain wall-map by Mortier K. 71.21, which is preceded by a later one with the same title, but without such addition, under 18315 (4). But also Valk’s wall-map set of world and continents emphatically recorded with their measures. – Apart from that

not  in  the  1971-2000  noble  lists  redacted  by  the  British  Library

of international Notable Acquisitions and Unusual Items that have come up for Sale resp. in I. M. The only one wall-map of the Iberian Peninsula there the Gastaldi map of 1544; known otherwise a copy of the already mentioned Mortier wall-map of ca. 1704-06 sold here more than twenty years ago into a Rhenish collection and after its reacquisition at once to a public library in 1993. Interesting especially while the statements of its cartouches follow those of Valk’s map offered here. In such a manner then not only a

CARTOGRAPHIC  RARITY  OF  THE  HIGHEST  ORDER

but also by focus on the Spanish War of Succession (1701-1714)

of  eminently  historical  affair :

in 1704 as the remarkable year of the war – be sure to pay attention to niemeyer’s aha page in August, too ! – also in regard of other events the prospective emperor Charles VI – son of emperor Leopold I (d. 1705), brother of his successor Joseph I (d. 1711) – disembarked with 12000 men of allied English-Dutch troops first in Lisbon, then, as loyal to him, too, in Catalonia, “after he has been

proclaimed  as  Charles  III  to  be  King  of  Spain  in  Vienna  in  1703 ”

(Meyer’s Konvers.-Lex., 4^th ed., vol. IX, p. 518). The map dedication following this event :

“ PRINCIPI CAROLO LEOPOLDI CAESARIS
Filio, secundò genito;
IMPERATORVM MAGNO, et QVINTO …
Totus dum Acclamat Orbis;
VIVat HIspanorVM,. Penes EVropeos,
InDos et VtrosqVe, TertIVs ReX CaroLVs !

The date given first – as in context with maps very scarce – as chronogram, then repeated with the fine leap-year reference “Annô hôc intercalari MDCCIIII”.

The landing first in Lisbon not by chance as Dom Pedro II of Portugal had joined the great Habsburg alliance in the year before. On August 3, 1704 the allied English under George Byng, Lord Vicomte of Torrington conquered then Gibraltar to hold it unchanged in their possession on the 300^rd anniversary, too. Less long-term the fortune of war developed for Charles. Certainly, he could hold his own in Valencia, Catalonia, and Aragon, also Madrid could be taken by an English-Portuguese army in 1706, but only until the next year when it got lost again to Philipp V, the grandson of Louis XIV of France, together with the southern provinces. After a renewed turning-point of war Charles could march into Madrid again, indeed, in September 1709 – in 1708 he had already married Elisabeth of Brunswick-Luneburg in Barcelona – , but followed by a significant defeat of his troops in December 1710. Preceding the change of the politcal general weather situation in 1711, being conditioned not least by the own power growth as successor of emperor Joseph I, in which connection he had installed his wife still as regent of Spain before his return to Germany. – Valk’s

representative  coloured  wall-map

is the compliment of welcome of an entrepreneur of the joined camp to a decisive event as not without example. So forty years later, 1744, Ridinger dedicated two Bavarian local works to the Wittelsbach elector Charles Albert on occasion of his return as emperor Charles VII to Munich and his Hubertusburg Badger to the 1763 conclusion of peace at Hubertusburg (Seven-Year’s War).

Surely not by chance, too, that the map was furnished with  road  net  ( “‘s Heeren ofte Groote Weegen” ) to mention together as an early example. Besides

of  extraordinary  decoration + best  condition

though the cartouches remained uncoloured as widely timely and as it is supported also by the Atlas of the Great Elector.

On heavy paper of perfect freshness and impeccable condition except for a few mostly quite tiny repaired tears in the 3-3.5 cm wide white margins. Centre and three long folds, one of them with a repaired finely little break.
Offer no. 28,680  /  price on request

„ Best her Niemeyer, De prenten zijn vanmiddag in goede staat gearriveerd. Alleen al het uitpakken is een genot! Ze zien er prachtig uit (vooral The Idel ’prentice is een juweel) … Wat dat betreft, zijn eigenlijk alle prenten die u mij hebt toegezonde, van uitstekende kwaliteit … “

(de heer P. E., 1. Februar 2008)