This is the final state of this beautiful map of North America, revised to show California open-ended to the north, thereby leaving it to the reader's imagination if it is an island or a peninsula. The Pacific Northwest is completely blank with the farthest western settlement being New Mexico. Santa Fe is shown along the R. del Norte (Rio Grande River), but the river erroneously drains into the Gulf of California. This edition shows the Great Lakes with closed, though irregular, borders and Lake Erie is still too far south, split by the 40th parallel. The Mississippi River basin reflects La Salle's geography, including the river's mouth being located too far to the west. The eastern part of the continent is divided into Nouvelle France and Floride with Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England hugging the coast. The decorative title cartouche is adorned with the arms of the Dauphine, two natives, and tropical birds. Jaillot first published this map in 1674 and appears here in the fourth and final state (Burden). Printed on two sheets, joined.

See also lot 784 for Carl Wheat's Mapping the Transmississippi West and lot 786 for Glen McLaughlin's The Mapping of California as an Island that both describe this map.

References: Burden #438; McCorkle #674.3; McLaughlin #55; Wheat (TMW) #58.

Condition: A

A crisp impression on watermarked paper with some light printer's ink residue along the centerfold and a couple faint spots. There is a faint dampstain in the top right margin and a short centerfold separation confined to the bottom blank margin.