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A nice example of Juan Francisco D'Avila's rare map of the Jesuit Provinces, first issued in 1726, prior to the map's being corrected and enlarged in 1732 by Antonio Marchoni.

D'Avila's map tracks the Jesuit missions in Paraguay, showing the locations of the various tribes and settlements. Includes the Pacific Ocean east to the Parana River or parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Shows the location of rivers and lakes (including Lake Titicaca and Lake Xareyes with the island of Orejones in the middle) and some topographical details. Also includes a lion and jaguar.

D'Avila's map of the Paraguay was the most complete and up to date map of the region drained by the Rio de la Plata and a significant improvement over earlier maps of the region. The map extends from Peru, Lake Chucuito and the source of the Rio de La Plata at Xareyes Lacas to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, Buenos Ayres, Mendoza, etc. The map shows the central part of South America from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean, including most of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, with rivers and affluents tribes, territories, and settlements. Indicates existing and destroyed Spanish towns and Jesuit missions. This map is substantially improved from earlier maps of the region, including a more accurate depiction of the two bays at Montevideo, a corrected and more detailed image of the Parana Delta, and a vastly improved treatment of the various sources of the Rio Uruguay, etc.

As noted in Maps of the Jesuit Mission in Spanish America, 18th Century . . . Imago Mundi, Vol. 15, (1960), pp. 114-118:

This map, as is well demonstrated by Furlong, was the work of Fratello Juan Francisco Davila or d'Avila (1682-1733), being published in Rome under the care of the Procurator, Fr. Girolamo Herran. "This map is without doubt the most complete and most comprehensive map undertaken by the Jesuits up to the middle of the eighteenth century" (Furlong, S.J., Cartografia jesuttica del Rio de la Plata, I (Buenos Aires, 1936) p. 44). In 1732, another edition, revised and emended (by Fr. [Antonio] Machoni ?), was issued; this was twice reproduced: in the Novelle interessanti in proposite degli affari del Portogallo .. (Berna, 1760), in volume I or II, depending on the copies; and in the Sammlung der Neuesten Schrifften welche die Jesuiten in Portugal betreffen, II (Franckfurt, 1761) . . .

The title in the cartouche is:

Ober-Paraguarien, nebst denen Landern Baures, Tschekiten, Schareyes, Payagas, Toromonas, Moschos, Ytonama, etc.: samt einem Theil dern königreichen Tschili und Peru etc. etc. In bottom margin: Emendavit et resculpsit Graecii Chri. Dietell, Universitatis Vienn. Chalcogra.

Translation:   Upper Paraguay, along with the lands of Baures, Tschekiten, Schareyes, Payagas, Toromonas, Moschos, Ytonama, etc.: including part of the kingdoms of Chile and Peru, etc. etc.  Corrected and re-engraved in Graz by Chri. Dietell, engraver of the University of Vienna.

Rarity

One of the rarest and most important maps of the region, catalogued in several major South American collections as a source map for much of the regional cartography for the 18th Century.