Mather, Cotton | "the most famous American book of colonial times"

Mather, Cotton

Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620, unto the Year of Our Lord, 1698. London: Printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1702

Folio (315 x 201 mm). 2 pp. engraved map of New England and New York, title-pages for each book, type in two columns, final leaf of publisher's advertisements; lacking the errata, long tear in map repaired, map backed on linen, short tears on title-page, 5H4, and 5I1 neatly repaired. Late 19th-century brown morocco, paneled in gilt and blind with central gilt cartouche, spine with raised bands in in 6 compartments, 2 reserved for gilt lettering, the others with repeat gilt fleurons, gilt-ruled dentelles, all edges gilt, plain endpapers; some rubbing at extremities, boards scratched, hinges a little loose.

First edition of "the most famous American book of colonial times" (Streeter). An indispensable source for colonial social history including civil, religious, and military affairs at the end of the seventeenth century and is equally noteworthy for its lively biographies. The map, which depicts New England, Long Island, and eastern New York has been described by cartographic historian Barbara McCorkle as "the first eighteenth-century general map of New England." It was probably derived from A New Map of New England. New York. New Iarsey. Pensilvania. Maryland. and Virginia, which likely was created by Phillip Lea in 1680.

REFERENCE:

Alden & Landis 702/127; Church 806; Grolier American 6; Howes M-391; McCorkle 702.3, 680.4 (ref.); Sabin 46392; Streeter sale I:658

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's New York, June 4, 2013, lot 111