|
||
|
|
|
|
A scarce English edition of Kino's map, which definitively ended the myth of California as an Island.
Fra Eusebio Kino was a Jesuit Missionary, who surmised that California was not an island long before his trip to Mexico. When he arrived, he initially transmitted information back to Europe which found its way into Scherer's maps and De Fer's Cette Carte…one of the last interesting large format California as an Island maps.
After obtaining permission to travel up the Gulf of California and explore the region, Kino was able to establish his theory that California was not an island.
The first edition of the map was printed in one of the volumes of the Jesuit reports Lettres Edifantes. It was reissued in a number of languages thereafter, and became one of the seminal California maps, although a number of commercial cartographers ignored the report for 20-30 years and continued to show California as an island.
This example was engraved by Emanuel Bowen for John Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits.
Emanuel Bowen (1694?-1767) was a British engraver and print seller. He was most well-known for his atlases and county maps. Although he died in poverty, he was widely acknowledged for his expertise and was appointed as mapmaker to both George II of England and Louis XV of France. His business was carried on by his son, Thomas Bowen. He also trained many apprentices, two of whom became prominent mapmakers, Thomas Kitchin and Thomas Jeffreys.
![[ Shasta & Klamath National Forests ] Map of Siskiyou County, California Showing Boundaries of the National Forests](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/98816.jpg)
