Subject: Pacific Ocean
Period: 1650 (circa)
Publication: Nouvel Atlas
Color: Hand Color
Size:
21.4 x 17.3 inches
54.4 x 43.9 cm
This significant map covers the whole Pacific Ocean along with the western coastlines of the Americas, Japan, and a bit of New Guinea and Cape York, Australia, showing the recent Dutch discoveries there. The top of the chart is dominated by a large landmass labeled Terra Incognita. A large Island of California appears, based on the Briggs type, most probably using Abraham Goos' map as a model. A curious chain of islands thread their way across the South Pacific with a legend that identifies these islands as being discovered by Hernando Galego in 1576. The chart is centered on a compass rose with rhumb lines and is ornamented with a great title cartouche with Asian figures and the distance scale with putti using navigational instruments. This is the first state with French text on verso, published between 1650-57.
References: Burden #292; McLaughlin #11; Tooley (Amer) p. 114, #10; Van der Krogt (Vol. I) #0600:1; Wagner (NW) #359.
Condition: B+
Full contemporary color. There is some uneven toning and faint dampstains at bottom that have been backed with Japanese tissue.