Franciscus Dracus Nobiliss Eques Angliae Aetatis Suae XXXXVI / Thomas Candyssh Nobilis. Anglus Aetatis Suae XXXII

Franciscus Dracus Nobiliss Eques Angliae Aetatis Suae XXXXVI

Contemporary portrait of Sir Francis Drake - the most noble knight of England, at the age of 46 - with a map of the world and of Cuba. Francis Drake, half -length, in an oval lettered with the title, slightly turned to the right, his left hand lifted slightly, with a neat beard and moustache, in etched armour with a sash and wearing a lace collar over his gorget, a large shield to the left, two hemispheres before him with the continents of the world, a map of Cuba with ships in sail beyond, after Jodocus Hondius, from a Dutch broadside containing the Francis Drake map.

Thomas Candyssh Nobilis. Anglus Aetatis Suae XXXII

Contemporary portrait of Thomas Cavendish - at the age of 32 - with a map of the world. Thomas Cavendish, half-length, in an oval lettered with the title, slightly turned to the left, dressed in an slashed doublet embroidered with flowers and with floral buttons, wearing a single pearl earring, holding the two hemispheres before him, an armorial shield between them, a map of an island beyond labelled 'Calis Malis Insulae', pictures of ships in sail around it; after Jodocus Hondius.

Engravings with etching, circa 1596, without signature and printing details.

Only two copies of this portrait are known (John Carter Brown and British Museum).

https://archive.org/details/franciscusdracus00cave/page/n27/mode/1up

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1867-1012-382

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1878-0511-650

Unobtainable half length portraits in oval frame of Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) and Thomas Cavendish (1560-1592) with two maps. The double hemishere map of the world, being a reduced size copy of the legendary Jodocus Hondius-Francis Drake broadsheet map of the world (Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae) at the bottom, which was first engraved by Hondius in Amsterdam, circa 1595. The world map records the track of Drake's circumnavigation and shows a large Terra Australis Incognitae. It also records Drake's landfall in the Philippines. The map of Cuba, illustrating Drake final forey in the Caribbean where he would die of "the bloody flux" (dysentery) and was buried at sea in a sealed lead-lined coffin. The coffin has not yet been recovered, despite many attempts.

Lacking in all other collections. Not in Shirley. Not in the LoC Kraus Drake collection. Not in Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography by Hans P. Kraus.

The portraits is believed to have been made for an excruciatingly rare 1596 news pamphlet to commemorate the life and death earlier that year of Sir Francis Drake, with title: Franciscus Dracus redivivus | Das ist, | Kurtze Beschreibung , al- | ler vornehmbsten Reysen , Schiffarten |unnd Wasserschlachten , So der weîtberûmbte En- | glische Admiral, Franciscus Dracus , welcher inn zwey | Jahren und zehen Monaten orbem Mundi beschiffet, hin vnd wider | bey Pleymeuten , Carthag: S. Domingo. August : Florida und der | Insul Cuba, in seinem Leben glûcklich gehalten | und vollbracht. | Item von der jetzigen Engelischen Admiraln unnd | Schiffobersten bey Calis Malis verrichten und Abzug, und was sie | noch weiter daselbsten herumb bîsz Dato . vor- | haben , &c. | Alles in drey Kupfferstuck ordentlich vorgebîldet, und durch Zifferm erklaret, &c. | (Coat of arms of England between the date 1596) | Erstlich Getruckt zu Amstertamb in Holland, | durch Johann Clausen. |

That important pamphlet has only survived in three or four copies (John Carter Brown, Berlin, Erfurt). As pointed out by Tiele (Mémoire bibliographique sur les journaux des navigateurs néerlandais, 1867) the title calls for three copperplates ("drey Kupfferstuck"), but those were missing in the known copies of the pamphlet.

John Carter Brown managed to complete one copy with the missing copperplates. In their annual report of 1927 (page 5) they write: The acquisition of books continues to be the adventure that the collecting of treasure has always been to those who give themselves to that thrilling employment. Just when it seems that everything worth while has been secured or has become no longer available for purchase, one of our friends among the booksellers turns up something of unusual interest. Or, when we have despaired of finding a much desired item - for example the fabulously rare Drake portrait needed for the Franciscus Dracus Redivivus, printed in German in 1596 - a Parisian printseller appears on a casual visit and when facetiously questioned, reaches into his portfolio and answers the wild surmise in our eyes by drawing out the one print in all the world most essential to our happiness at that moment. The portrait was from the print collection of Louis Philippe, and the printseller, properly rewarded, is now searching for the Cavendish portrait, the Grosse Insel Cuba map and the Armada print needed to make our copy of the book, a great rarity in itself, the only one known to possess its plates besides that in the British Museum.

Copperplates with fine hand colour. Cut to the border and pasted onto another contemporary sheet of paper, like the two other known copies. A very desirable example of a seminal unobtainable items.

Bibliografia

O'Donoghue 1908-25 / Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum nn. 7, 9; Hollstein / Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700, IX.3, XV.1. Size 130X170 mm each.