This western hemisphere map is a close copy of Jean Boisseau's map published in his Tresor des Cartes. Based largely on Jansson's map of America from Atlas Minor (1628), the most dominant feature of the map is the curious depiction of the west coast of North America, which is completely bisected by an unnamed straight (Northwest Passage), possibly derived from reports of Juan de Fuca's disputed voyage. The bulging northwest coast of North America continues another 65 degrees and is separated from Asia by a narrow Estroit d'Anian. These features were derived from the Van den Keere and Plancius globe of 1614. Previous maps had depicted the supposed Northwest Passage through the Strait of Anian. Other interesting features include the St. Lawrence River flowing from a small lake in the West and no Great Lakes. In South America, the mythical lakes Parime and Xarayes are depicted, but not named, although the golden city of Manoa is shown on the western shore of Lake Parime.

Although the atlas, Carte Generalle de la Geographie Royalle, is typically attributed to Christophe Tassin, the atlas wasn't published until 1651, several years after Tassin had ended his commercial activity and sold his plates to Nicolas Berey and Antoine de Fer.

See also lot 706 for Philip Burden's The Mapping of North America - A List of Printed Maps 1511-1700 that describes this map.

References: Burden #301; Pastoureau, TASSIN I A [3].

Condition: B+

A sharp impression on a bright sheet with soiling that is mostly confined to the edges of the sheet. There are professional repairs to chips in the right-hand corners of the sheet and to several small holes, only one of which is in the image (in the south Pacific).