"Noorder America", Sanson, Nicolas

This is a charming little map of North America with California as an island and embellished with a strapwork title cartouche. California is shown with an indented northern coastline in the Foxe form. The detached coastline to the northwest of California is named Terre de Iesso ou Ieco, rather than reflecting Sanson's earlier belief that it was an extension of the American continent. The R. de Nort drains into the Gulf of California from a large interior lake in the country of Les Apaches. The two western-most Great Lakes are left open-ended and Lake Erie remains unnamed. Engraved by Antoine d'Winter. This is the third state which includes a peninsula inserted northeast of California, the Carolinas attributed to the French, N. Iork added below N. Amstredam, and an umlaut over the "Roy" in the title.

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.

This example appeared in Algemeene Weereld-Beschryving, nae de Rechte Verdeeling der Landschappen, Plaetsen, Zeeën, Rivieren, &c. Geographisch, Politisch, Historisch, Chronologisch en Genealogisch, a Dutch edition of A. Phérotée de la Croix's Nouvelle Methode Pour Apprendre Facilement la Geographie Universelle, which first appeared in 1690. The Dutch edition was published by Francois Halma and included 98 maps and views.

References: Burden #545; McLaughlin #89-3.

Condition: A

A dark impression on a bright, watermarked sheet with a hint of offsetting and light dampstains in the bottom corners of the sheet, not affecting the image.