This is the uncommon, larger, version of Merian's map of the Americas. Merian's bold engraving style copies the cartography of Jodocus Hondius' map of 1631. North America is depicted with a prominent Virginia and an odd New England coastline. The western coastline above California makes the continent too wide and there is only a hint of the Great Lakes. There is a large inland lake in equatorial South America. Insets of the Polar Regions are set in strapwork cartouches. The map is finely decorated with a title cartouche featuring human skulls and bones, representing the legendary cannibalism of the Americas, and the seas are teeming with ships, sea battles and fierce sea monsters.

References: Burden #235, Tooley (Amer) p. 299.

Condition: B+

A dark impression printed on two joined sheets, issued folding and now flattened with faint foxing at top and professional repairs to some worm holes along the folds, with a minor amount of the image skillfully replaced in facsimile.