Parts Regions & Departments of France

25x18 cm

CHAMPAGNE comitatus CAMPANIA
Ralph Hall sculpt 

Copper engraving first issued by Flemish engraver Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) in Atlas Minor c.1620. Hondius' work was largely comprised of reductions of Mercators plates. Several editions followed under various titles. 
This example, with English text verso and with additional typeset English titles in the left margin, was issued in Historia Mundi: or Mercators Atlas containing his Cosmographical Description of the Fabricke and Figure of the World...London, T. Cotes for Michael Sparke and Samuel Cartwright, 1637.

Signed by engraver Ralph Hall (fl.1635-1639). Little is certain about Ralph Hall but he was possibly the Ralph Hall baptised 8 Jul 1610 at St. Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street, London. Apprenticed to engraver Robert Vaughan (1597?-1663) for eleven years in September 1622. Most maps in The Hondius work are unsigned but it is likely that others were engraved by Hall.

Smallish margins with some repairs to chipped paper edges.