PASSE (Crispin van de, sr.)
[Engraved portrait of Sir Francis Drake with a map of the World] Francisco Draco nobilissimus Angliae Eques ... 1598.
The very rare Crispin van de Passe portrait of Drake, a close copy of the very important Hondius portrait which, in its first state, is found in only two examples (Royal Geographical Society, and Huntington Library).
Kraus wrote “The portrait of Drake is of especial interest: it … depicts him in bust, with a shield, and with a two-hemisphere terrestrial map displaying the track of his circumnavigation” - Kraus. The shield bears an image of The Golden Hind, the vessel in which Drake circumnavigated the globe in 1577-1580. This portrait was engraved for Effigies Regum ac Principum, eorum scilicet quorum vis ac potentia in re nautica seu marina prae caeteris spectabilis est … (Cologne, 1598); it bears the monogram of van de Passe just inside the lower extent of the oval border, and has laudatory text in six lines engraved below, attributed to Matthias Quad.
Kraus, Drake 59; Sabin 58995; Graesse V:154; Brunet IV:414.
