This uncommon polar chart of the Antarctic depicts a huge Terra Incognita Australis and includes Tierra del Fuego, the Strait of Magellan and the tip of South America. This misconception of the great southern continent persisted since the earliest printed maps. As trading and exploration penetrated further south in the latter part of the 17th century, this conception was gradually whittled away. However, it did not entirely die out, and was revived by a number of cartographers in the early eighteenth century including Chatelain, Jaillot and Weigel.

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Condition: A

Nice impression with full contemporary color on a sheet with the watermark of the initials "WB" beneath a coat of arms. There is a minor crease at top right, some toning along the edges of the sheet, and archivally repaired edge tears confined to the blank margins.