The Encyclopedie was published under the direction of Diderot from 1751 onward with thousands of articles written by the most prominent philosophers and scientists of the time. These great minds collaborated in the goal of assembling and disseminating the fruits of accumulated knowledge and learning. This massive reference work for the arts and sciences, served to propagate Enlightened ideas. Read a full description of this work and Diderot at Wikipedia.com.

Two very contrasting maps within a single border. Each map covers the north Pacific, including the continents bordering it. The top map depicts the theories of Philip Buache concerning the Northwest Passage, with numerous possible routes through North America, including Lace de Valasco, Lac de Fonte, and Mer de l'Ouest. Alaska is shown as an elongated island. In Asia, Kamchatka is fairly well formed but Japan is still quite misshapen. The bottom chart depicts the region per Kaempfer, with Japan nicely detailed, but the coasts of both Asia and North America very deformed.

References: Falk (AK) #1752-2; Wagner (NW), pp. 158-162; Pedley #452; McGuirk #146; Kershaw #1230.

Condition: A

Issued folding and now flattened with a tiny burn hole in the image, one small ink spot in the top margin, and a binding trim at lower left.