This uncommon, beautifully engraved map showing the world on a polar projection was the final world map executed by Johannes Blaeu in circa 1672. A tragic fire destroyed the Blaeu company that same year before the map was published. The plate itself survived and was acquired by Gerald Valck, who replaced Blaeu's imprint with his own. Traces of the original imprint can still be discerned in the cartouche. The map shows California as an island; the only Blaeu map to depict this cartographic myth. In the Pacific, the coastline of Australia is beginning to take shape. In South America, two mythical lakes are shown: Parime Lacus is on the Equator and Lago de los Xarayes appears in the center of the continent. The southern tip of South America is oddly truncated due to the projection. Surrounding the map are billowing clouds, the sun, moon and an armillary sphere at top. The bottom of the map shows Eve emerging from the rib of Adam on the left, and on the right, a clothed and ashamed Adam is about to depart the Garden of Eden.

References: Shirley #459.

Condition: B

Original color and fully backed in tissue to reinforce and repair some small cracks and several very small areas of loss due to the oxidation of green pigment. Loss of image includes a small portion of the southern tip of Africa and Madagascar, and a tiny area of Northern Africa. A small amount of the image has been replaced in facsimile.