"Amerique Meridionale", Sanson, Nicolas

Delicately engraved map of South America with a charming cartouche and a simple compass rose. It presents very good information in the interior, focusing particularly on the systems of the La Plata and Amazon rivers. A remnant of the mythical Lac de Parime with the fabled Manoa o el Dorado (City of Gold) is still shown straddling the equator in Guyana. Another mythical lake, Lac de Eupana ou de los Xarayes, is depicted in Paraguay.

Sanson's small maps from his L'Amerique en Plusieurs Cartes..., first published in 1656 and engraved by A. Peyrounin, were copied several times by various map publishers. Johann David Zunners made copies of Sanson's maps for his German translation of Die Gantze Erd-Kugel in 1679. Johannes Ribbius and Simon de Vries published copies in 1682 and 1683, with new maps engraved by Antoine d'Winter. The plates were later sold to Francois Halma, who used them in 1699 and then again in 1705 with the titles re-engraved in Dutch. The titles on the d'Winter plates were re-engraved back into French, and then used by Nicholas Chemereau in 1715 and by Henri du Sauzet in 1738.

References: Pastoureau, SANSON II F bis.

Condition: A

A crisp impression with light printer's ink residue. A couple of tiny chips at top have been professionally repaired, and binding holes in the left border have been reinforced with old paper on verso.