This work includes Remondini's uncommon reduction of Isaak Brouckner's map of the world, Carte Generale du Globe Terrestre.... It features an extravagant collection of Northwest Passage theories, including one based on the infamous expedition by Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte. In 1708, a newly discovered account of the Spanish Admiral's 1640 discovery of the passage was published. That account was actually a journalistic hoax, but thereafter the account was changed and elaborated upon by numerous mapmakers. This map shows one Northwest Passage from Baffin Bay to exit at roughly Alaska, and another from the St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes and out via the massive and utterly spurious Sea of the West ( Mer ou Baie de l'Ouest). The large fictional lakes from De Fonte's account include Velasco, de Fonte, and the strange archipelago of St. Lazare. In the North Pacific, the routes of the Russian expeditions and the Manilla/Alcapulco galleons are charted. In the South Pacific, the partial coastlines of Australia and New Guinea are shown connected, and both New Zealand and Tasmania are shown as single coastlines. The map is engraved in an unusual and simple style, and titled on a banner style cartouche. Also included in volume one is a double-hemispheric world map entitled Mappamondo Overo Descrizione del Globo Terrestre... and also reflects a lack of knowledge in northwestern North America.

Volume 1 (288 pages) with two maps; volume 2 (324 pages). Hardbound in vellum with gilt titles on spines.

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Condition: A

The maps have dark impressions on clean bright sheets. There is a binding tear confined to the right blank margin of the primary world map that has been closed on verso with archival tape. Accompanying text is clean and tight. Covers have light soiling and minor shelf wear.