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This is an extremely rare map of the Caribbean, bearing the imprint of Claude Roussel, with a privilege dated 1686.
Roussel’s map extends from the Gulf of Honduras and the Vielle Espagne (Yucatán / Campeche) in the west to Puerto Rico in the east, from South Florida and the Bahamas in the north down to the shores of Costa Rica, Cartagena, and Venezuela in the south. Constructed primarily as a charting of the coastal regions, it identifies shallows, capes, and passages throught the region.
A bold, 32-point fleur-de-lis compass rose dominates the center, with radiating rhumb lines. In the lower left corner Roussel shows a framed vignette map of Île de la Tortue (the Island of Tortuga), complete with tiny blockhouses, the Maison du Gouverneur sur la Montagne, magazines, church, and named plantations; an alphabetical key in the margin identifies each feature. Tortuga’s inclusion is telling: the island had served as the headquarters of French flibustiers for half a century and remained symbolically important even as France’s main colony of Saint-Domingue was rising.
Rarity
The map is extemely rare.
We locate only the example at the Bibliotheque National de France, which bears the stamp of the Ministere des Affaires Etrangers.
![[Rare Blaeu West Indische Pascaert Wall Map Section ] Insulae Americanae in Oceano Septentrionali, cum terris adjacentibus](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/75672.jpg)
![Map of Cuba [with] Jamaica](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/28682.jpg)
