ATLAS MINIMA: Comprehended in 30 Maps. MURPHY, W[illiam] (Cartographer). Publication Date: 1825 CONDITION: GOOD

Title: ATLAS MINIMA: Comprehended in 30 Maps.

Publisher: MACREDIE, Alex. St. David St. [Edinburgh].

Publication Date: 1825

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Edition: 1st Edition

MINIATURE ATLAS. No date but 1825, following the National Library of Scotland. 30 hand-coloured maps (age-toned with slight spotting), 80 x 60 mm. Index page with 1824(?) watermark. Vertical title page with vignette engraving of Atlas on one knee supporting globe on his back, against a background of the Firth of Forth. Each of the maps (except the first world map) bears the number outside the top right corner, and below outside centre is the imprint "Edinburgh. Published by Alex. Macredie" with "W.Murphy Sculpt ." outside bottom right (except in the second and third where the initial is omitted). The title is always within a border, and usually has a point after it. Except on the first world map it is always within the neat line. The World (Western & Eastern Hemispheres); The World on Mercator's projection; Europe; England; Scotland; Ireland; France in departments; Germany; Italy; Norway and Sweden; Denmark; Russia; Spain and Portugal; Netherlands; Holland; Prussia; Austria; Swisserland; Turkey in Europe; Asia; Turkey in Asia; Hindoostan; The Asiatic Isles; China; Africa; Egypt; Nth. America; America United States; West Indies; Sth. America (lacking the blank front endpaper; name to front pastedown; small ink stamp on title page, back pate-down endpaper with bookplate, crest & motto of the Clan Johnstone "Nunquam non Paratus"). 10 x 7cm. Contemporary quarter green calf over marble paper covered boards (rubbed & missing label on the front of the cover -"Atlas Minima 30 Maps 2/6 Plain 3/6 Col.d"); the word 'Atlas' on the spine in (rubbed) gilt. Provenance: Walter Wemyss; Henry E. Robinson; R.H.Johnstone. Publisher, bookseller Alex Macredie was in business from 1823-43. William Murphy was born in 1800, and was a printer, engraver at 209 High St, Edinburgh from 1825. The Atlas Minima is by far the smallest of Murphy's atlases. The maps themselves are very rudimentary allowing little detail & are similar to an atlas by Dr J. Playfair first published in London in 1814, but republished by the same Alex. Macredie in Edinburgh, without a date. The 44 maps in Playfair's atlas are much larger (average 55 x 45cm), but many of the titles are similar, as is their placing on the map. Alternatively the source might well have been Thomson's New General Atlas of 1814, also published from Edinburgh. WorldCat locates just four copies (National Lib. Scotland; National Maritime Museum; Virginia, and Newberry Libraries). Welsh, 306. Not in Bondy, nor Spielmann. A very uncommon miniature atlas. Seller Inventory # 5312