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Description

Important early map of Florida and the Southeast, illustrating a number of early and important cartographic features.

The first atlas map to correctly name Lake Erie, although it is pushed 2.5 degrees too far south, increasing the claims of France. Several new rivers appear. in Virginia. The Caroline depicted on the map is Ft. Caroline, not the Carolinas.

The projection of the Southeast is improved over Sanson's folio map of the prior year. The Florida nomenclature is corrected from Sanson's North America. Most of the rest of the map is Chaves/Ortelius nomenclature. The Southwest is still largely unknown.

This is the Utecht edition of the map, which appeared in Joannes Ribbius and Simon de Vries' Curieuse Aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West Indische . . . This edition can be distinguished from other editions by the orientation of the word "Septentrion" at the top of the map. In the Paris editions, the word is bifurcated by a longitudinal line before the last 2 letters. In the 1679 Zunners edition, the word is bifurcated before the last 4 letters.

Condition Description
17th-century laid paper. Minor toning at centerfold. Minor spot in bottom righthand corner.
Reference
Burden 326, Cumming 53.
Nicolas Sanson Biography

Nicholas Sanson (1600-1667) is considered the father of French cartography in its golden age from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth. Over the course of his career he produced over 300 maps; they are known for their clean style and extensive research. Sanson was largely responsible for beginning the shift of cartographic production and excellence from Amsterdam to Paris in the later-seventeenth century.

Sanson was born in Abbeville in Picardy. He made his first map at age twenty, a wall map of ancient Gaul. Upon moving to Paris, he gained the attention of Cardinal Richelieu, who made an introduction of Sanson to King Louis XIII. This led to Sanson's tutoring of the king and the granting of the title ingenieur-geographe du roi

His success can be chalked up to his geographic and research skills, but also to his partnership with Pierre Mariette. Early in his career, Sanson worked primarily with the publisher Melchior Tavernier. Mariette purchased Tavernier’s business in 1644. Sanson worked with Mariette until 1657, when the latter died. Mariette’s son, also Pierre, helped to publish the Cartes générales de toutes les parties du monde (1658), Sanson' atlas and the first French world atlas.