Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
The item illustrated and described below is sold, but we have another example in stock. To view the example which is currently being offered for sale, click the "View Details" button below.
Description

One of the truly remarkable early maps of the Texas, Gulf Coast & Mississippi River regions.

De Fer draws upon the manuscript maps of Franquelin, De L'Isle and others. The map locates the Indian settlements found by Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville, founder of Louisiana, who explored the interior of North America under the service of Louis XIV, in order to defeat British claims to the Mississippi Valley. A

lso included is La Salle's information on his exploration south from Canada. La Salle was conviced the Mississippi flowed close to the Spanish mines in Mexico, making them accessible to the French. Shows early detail in Texas relating to La Salle's explorations & along the Gulf Coast & Southeastern Seaboard.

Nicolas de Fer Biography

Nicholas de Fer (1646-1720) was the son of a map seller, Antoine de Fer, and grew to be one of the most well-known mapmakers in France in the seventeenth century. He was apprenticed at twelve years old to Louis Spirinx, an engraver. When his father died in 1673, Nicholas helped his mother run the business until 1687, when he became the sole proprietor.

His earliest known work is a map of the Canal of Languedoc in 1669, while some of his earliest engravings are in the revised edition of Methode pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie (1685). In 1697, he published his first world atlas. Perhaps his most famous map is his wall map of America, published in 1698, with its celebrated beaver scene (engraved by Hendrick van Loon, designed by Nicolas Guerard). After his death in 1720, the business passed to his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jacques-Francois Benard.