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Description

Scarce map of America, one of the earliest to illustrate the Sea of the West.

The source of the modern myth of the Bay of the West are manuscript maps by Guillaume De L'Isle, the Royal Geographer to the King of France at the end of the 17th Century and beginning of the 18th Century. There is a map in Yale's map collection, which depicts a 16th century Thames school map of North America with a large "Branch of the South Sea", which closely resembles De L'Isle's Mer de L'Ouest and may well be the source of De L'isle's idea. There are De L'Isle manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale as early as 1696 (dated) that depict this cartographic myth. Interestingly, De L'Isle never depected this sea on any of his printed maps.

The first printed map to show the Bay of the West derives from Nolin's rare world map . There are 3 states of the map, according to McGuirk. The states bear the imprints of Pierre Mortier, David Mortier, and the Covens & Mortier. None of the states are dated, although estimates ranges from just before 1700 to 1704-07 for the first state, with the Covens & Mortier state being offered from 1721 onwards. It should be noted that De L'Isle sued Nolin for stealing his idea and image of the Mer de L'Ouest for his wall map (see Shirley 605). Being in another country, Mortier was not subject to French jurisdiction and was therefore not sued. Nolin lost the lawsuit, and in his future wall maps, was forced to depict a different and smaller Mer De L'Ouest which, interestingly, somewhat resembles Puget Sound.

The map also includes an interesting treatment of Florida as an Archipelago, nice detail in California and the Mississippi Valley. Also includes an interesting projection of New Zealand and location of many Islands in the Pacific, many of which are either fanciful or badly misplaced.

Nolin dedicates this map to Monseigneur LAW controlleur general des finances. John Law was a Scottish financier, who was masterminding the economic recovery of France, one element of his plan being the exploitation of the French possessions in Louisiana, the so-called Mississippi scheme, which was briefly successful and set off a wild period of speculation, before the Mississippi Bubble burst. Law fled to Venice in disgrace, but not before creating one of the first speculative booms based upon American real estate. Full color example.

Condition Description
Minor toning
Jean-Baptiste Nolin Biography

Jean-Baptiste Nolin (ca. 1657-1708) was a French engraver who worked at the turn of the eighteenth century. Initially trained by Francois de Poilly, his artistic skills caught the eye of Vincenzo Coronelli when the latter was working in France. Coronelli encouraged the young Nolin to engrave his own maps, which he began to do. 

Whereas Nolin was a skilled engraver, he was not an original geographer. He also had a flair for business, adopting monikers like the Geographer to the Duke of Orelans and Engerver to King XIV. He, like many of his contemporaries, borrowed liberally from existing maps. In Nolin’s case, he depended especially on the works of Coronelli and Jean-Nicholas de Tralage, the Sieur de Tillemon. This practice eventually caught Nolin in one of the largest geography scandals of the eighteenth century.

In 1700, Nolin published a large world map which was seen by Claude Delisle, father of the premier mapmaker of his age, Guillaume Delisle. Claude recognized Nolin’s map as being based in part on his son’s work. Guillaume had been working on a manuscript globe for Louis Boucherat, the chancellor of France, with exclusive information about the shape of California and the mouth of the Mississippi River. This information was printed on Nolin’s map. The court ruled in the Delisles’ favor after six years. Nolin had to stop producing that map, but he continued to make others.

Calling Nolin a plagiarist is unfair, as he was engaged in a practice that practically every geographer adopted at the time. Sources were few and copyright laws weak or nonexistent. Nolin’s maps are engraved with considerable skill and are aesthetically engaging.

Nolin’s son, also Jean-Baptiste (1686-1762), continued his father’s business.