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Description

Scarce French sea chart by Pierre Du Val, showing the British Isles, western Europe, Scandinavia, the North Atlantic, and the north part of Africa.

The chart includes a rare reference to the Kimmen Line, which indicates a depth of 100 fathoms from Denmark to just west of the Shetland Isles, north of Scotland.

A large compass rose with radiating rhumb lines is shown, with a decorative cartouche embellished with 2 fighting ships and topped with a figurehead, with a second compass rose in the Mediterranean.

One of the first general sea charts of Europe published in France.

Pierre Du Val Biography

Pierre Duval (1618-1683) was a French geographer, cartographer, and publisher who worked in Abbeville and Paris during the seventeenth century. He was born in the former city, in northeast France, before moving to Paris. Duval was the nephew of the famous cartographer Nicolas Sanson, from whom he learned the mapmaker's art and skills. Both men worked at the royal court, having followed the royal request for artists to relocate to Paris. In addition to numerous maps and atlases, Du Val's opus also includes geography texts. He held the title of geographe ordinaire du roi from 1650 and died in 1683, when his wife and daughters took over his business.