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Description

In 1705, Pierre Moullart Sanson radically revised this map of North America, modifying perhaps the three most significant features of Sanson's prior maps of North America.

First, based upon the recent reports from Fra. Eusebio Kino and likely in conjunction with manuscript maps by Guillaume De L'Isle and Nicholas De Fer, California has been definitively re-attached to the mainland, with an annotation in French noting that it is now believed that California is joined to New Mexico. Burden notes that the 1705 edition of the map is one of the earliest to rejoin California to the mainland.

Second, the map radically re-casts the Mississippi River, adopting the model shown in pre-1700 manuscript maps by De L'Isle and the extremely rare first edition of De L'Isle's map of North America, which shows the Mississippi flowing into the Gulf of Mexico just north of the Rio Grande River, in modern day Texas. Only a few known examples of the first edition of De L'Isle's 1700 map of North America show this unusual river course, which dates to models of the Mississippi which De L'Isle was working with in manuscript form in the years before his first printed map of the region. The curious confluence of rivers near modern day New Oreans and the the mouth of the Mississippi are no longer shown and in its place, a shortlived northeasterly river is shown, more or less below the Ohio River. Most of the other rivers along the Gulf Coast have been elmininated.

The final noteworth change is the updating of the Great Lakes, reflecting an adaptation of the information from Coronelli and later 17th Century French Sources. The west end of the lakes are now closed, unlike earlier editions.

This final edition of Sanson's map is quite rare. We are not aware of another example appearing on the market. Burden was unable to locate an example of the 1705 edition of the map and relied upon this 1726 edition for his description.

Condition Description
A bit toned, but a nice example, with deckled edges.
Reference
Burden 324.