"Pour les Vents", Buy de Mornas, Claude

This finely engraved chart shows the wind currents in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The chart is centered on Asia and adorned with two elaborate compass roses and two wind roses. The northwest coast of North America is left mostly blank with only a couple of notations regarding discoveries and California named Nelle. Caroline. The coastline of Australia is equally incomplete. Two panels of French text flank the chart with information on the winds. The chart and text are surrounded by a very decorative border frame entwined with garlands of leaves and flowers, including surveyors and draughtsmens' tools (e.g. triangles, compasses, rulers, telescopes, a map and globe) with a mythological figurehead crowned with leaves in top center. Buy de Mornas was the royal geographer to the King in Paris and a respected historian with an interest in scientific matters pertaining to the earth and the planets. Published by Desnos.

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Condition: A

Lovely original color on watermarked paper and wide, full margins, with just a hint of toning along centerfold.