World Map

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About World Map

Paris: Jean-Baptiste Nolin, (after 1690). Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour. Sheet size: 18 7/8 x 24 5/8 inches. A very beautiful and finely engraved world map, principally devised by one of the period's greatest cartographersThis very fine map is the result of the synergy of the talents of Coronelli and his French colleague Tralage, popularly known as the Sieur de Tillemont. It principally depicts the world in a bi-hemispheric projection, and largely follows the geography represented on Coronelli's celebrated globe of 1688. California is shown to be an island, and in the enigmatic void that lies to the northwest is the 'Strait of Anian' that supposedly forms the western terminus of a presumed Northwest Passage. Beyond the strait, just to the northeast of Japan is the mysterious "Terre de Jessu, " that supposedly represents Hokkaido. Much further south, the loosely-defined area that is now known as New Guinea is labelled as the "Terre de Quir, " noting on the map that it was discovered in 1606 by the Spanish explorer Ferdinand de Quir. The only major addition here to Coronelli's established geography is the appearance of the Solomon Islands. Surrounding these principal hemispheres are eight diverse hemispheric projections of the world, evincing a playful fascination with mathematics and perspective that anticipated the Enlightenment of the next century. Adorning the two upper corners of the map are a pair of hemispheres capturing the world from an oblique perspective, one centered on Paris, and the other from its diametrically opposite position in the antipodes. Also, in the upper portion of the map, is a pair of hemispheres capturing the world in an ovoid projection, and resting in the spaces in between the two main hemispheres are a pair of projections depicting the world from a perspective centered at the poles. In the lower left corner, the entire world is captured on a projection centered at the North Pole.