Subject: World
Period: 1685 (circa)
Publication:
Color: Hand Color
Size:
17.8 x 12.5 inches
45.2 x 31.8 cm
Joseph Moxon, a little-known English cartographer, designed this interesting world map for publication in bibles. The map illustrates how the world was divided up among the sons of Noah after the Flood. It is centered on the Old World and only the place names are concentrated there. The rest of the world is shown only with continental outlines, rivers and lakes. The island of California appears across the expansive Pacific Ocean where there are partial outlines for Australia and New Zealand. Eden and the Land of Nod are located by the Euphrates River. Numbers throughout the map are keyed to a listing of 78 countries and places. A series of vignettes surround the map illustrating the Creation and the Garden of Eden at top, with scenes from the Fall of Man to the Crucifixion of Christ at bottom. Two cartouches further decorate the sheet, including a dedication to Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury. This is the second state with the addition of Pennsylvania in the numbered listing.
References: Shirley #457.
Condition: B+
A crisp impression on a bright sheet with a printer's crease adjacent to the centerfold at bottom and professional repairs to clean vertical cuts along the right and left edges of the map. There is marginal soiling and a chip at bottom right, well away from the image.