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Introduction:

The popular misconception of California as an island can be found on European maps from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. From its first portrayal on a printed map by Diego Gutiérrez, in 1562, California was shown as part of North America by mapmakers, including Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. In the 1620s, however, it began to appear as an island in several sources. While most of these show the equivalent of the modern state of California separated from the continent, others, like a manuscript chart by Joao Teixeira Albernaz I (ca. 1632) now in the collection of the National Library of Brasil shows the entire western half of North Americas as an island. 

The myth of California as an island was most likely the result of the travel account of Sebastian Vizcaino, who had been sent north up the shore of California in 1602. A Carmelite friar, Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, accompanied him. Ascension described the land as an island and around 1620 sketched maps to that effect. Normally, this information would have been reviewed and locked in the Spanish repository, the Casa de la Contratación. However, the manuscript maps were intercepted in the Atlantic by the Dutch, who took them to Amsterdam where they began to circulate. Ascensión also published descriptions of the insular geography in Juan Torquemada’s Monarquia Indiana (1613) (with the island details curtailed somewhat) and in his own Relación breve of ca. 1620.

The first known maps to show California as an island were on the title pages of Antonio de Herrera’s Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (1622) and Jacob le Maire's Spieghel Der Australische Navigatie (1622). Two early examples of larger maps are those by Abraham Goos (1624) and another by Henry Briggs, which was included in Samuel Purchas’ Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625). In addition to Briggs and Goos, prominent practitioners like Jan Jansson and Nicolas Sanson adopted the new island and the practice became commonplace. John Speed’s map (1626-7), based on Briggs’ work, is well known for being one of the first to depict an insular California.

The island of California became a fixture on mid- and late-seventeenth century maps. The island suggested possible links to the Northwest Passage, with rivers in the North American interior supposedly connecting to the sea between California and the mainland. Furthermore, Francis Drake had landed in northern California on his circumnavigation (1577-80) and an insular California suggested that Spanish power in the area could be questioned.

Not everyone was convinced, however. Father Eusebio Kino, after extensive travels in what is now California, Arizona, and northern Mexico concluded that the island was actually a peninsula and published a map refuting the claim (Paris, 1705). Another skeptic was Guillaume De L’Isle. In 1700, De L’Isle discussed “whether California is an Island or a part of the continent” with J. D. Cassini; the letter was published in 1715. After reviewing all the literature available to him in Paris, De L’Isle concluded that the evidence supporting an insular California was not trustworthy. He also cited more recent explorations by the Jesuits (including Kino) that disproved the island theory. Later, in his map of 1722 (Carte d’Amerique dressee pour l’usage du Roy), De L’Isle would abandon the island theory entirely.

Despite Kino’s and De L’Isle’s work, California as an island remained common on maps until the mid-eighteenth century. De L’Isle’s son-in-law, Philippe Buache, for example, remained an adherent of the island depiction for some time. Another believer was Herman Moll, who reported that California was unequivocally an island, for he had had sailors in his offices that claimed to have circumnavigated it. In the face of such skepticism, the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, had to issue a decree in 1747 proclaiming California to be a peninsula connected to North America; the geographic chimera, no matter how appealing, was not to be suffered any longer, although a few final maps were printed with the lingering island.


Place/Date:
Augburg / 1740
Size:
10 x 8 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
67439
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1679
Size:
21 x 17 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
62284
Place/Date:
Paris / 1694
Size:
43.5 x 31.3 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
73331
Place/Date:
Utrecht / 1683
Size:
10 x 8 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
93706
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1683
Size:
6.5 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
99687
Place/Date:
Paris / 1684
Size:
15 x 14.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
91382
Place/Date:
Nuremberg / 1660 (1678)
Size:
4.5 x 4 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
99590
Place/Date:
London / 1682
Size:
21.5 x 16.6 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
94304
Place/Date:
London / 1676
Size:
21 x 17.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
31301
Place/Date:
Padua / 1694
Size:
21.5 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
85045
Place/Date:
Venice / 1688
Size:
11 x 18 inches (each sheets)
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
99425

Archived

Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1670 circa
Size:
22 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
Good
Stock#:
64420
Place/Date:
Augsburg / 1730 circa
Size:
9 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
89380
Place/Date:
Augsburg / 1730 circa
Size:
9 x 6 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
89386
Place/Date:
Nuremberg / 1705 circa
Size:
26.5 x 22.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
100828
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1705 circa
Size:
23 x 19.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
55724
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1702 circa
Size:
22.5 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
82553
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1704 circa
Size:
24 x 20.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
89554
Place/Date:
Rome / 1660
Size:
33.5 x 21.3 inches (if joined)
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
74360mj
Place/Date:
Paris / 1669
Size:
22 x 15.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
75969
Place/Date:
Paris / 1669
Size:
22 x 16 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
84931
Place/Date:
Munich / 1702
Size:
13.5 x 9 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
70622
Place/Date:
Munich / 1703
Size:
14 x 9.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
80295
Place/Date:
Munich / 1700
Size:
13.5 x 8.75 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
92589
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1719
Size:
19 x 15 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
64708
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1636
Size:
21.5 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
Stock#:
99418
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
22 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
100008
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
21.5 x 18.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
81205
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
21.5 x 18 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
82242
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
21.5 x 18 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
81048
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1641
Size:
21.5 x 18 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
95489mp2
Place/Date:
London / 1730
Size:
11 x 7 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
74848
Place/Date:
London / 1732
Size:
8 x 10.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
94656
Place/Date:
Amsterdam / 1671
Size:
21.5 x 17.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
93185
Place/Date:
Paris / 1719
Size:
8.5 x 6.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
81981
Place/Date:
Paris / 1719
Size:
8.5 x 6.5 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
98486
Place/Date:
London / 1671
Size:
13 x 8 inches
Condition:
VG+
Stock#:
91261