Subject: World
Period: 1700 (circa)
Publication: Atlas Novus…Part III…Atlas Marianus…
Color: Hand Color
Size:
13.8 x 9 inches
35.1 x 22.9 cm
This very decorative map of the world is centered on the Pacific. In North America, California is shown as an island and there is a very distinctive Northwest Passage. The reports of the early Jesuits and French explorers are in evidence in the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley. In Asia the eastern coast is truncated and Japan oversized. Australia and New Guinea are incomplete, leaving open the prospect that the two are connected. The large title (actually a Bible verse - Luke 1) cartouche incorporates a personification of the Virgin Mary and each corner is filled with a scene of a devotional queen or king representing the continents. The lovely composition is completed with two large sailing ships.
References: Shirley #630.
Condition: A+