L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE
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Rare map of North America by N Sanson from 'Nouvelle relation, contenant les voyages de Thomas Gage dans la Nouvelle Espagne 1699'.
The map is larger than the other small North America / California as an Island maps by Sanson.
This rare small map is a slightly reduced version of the 1657 original (itself a derivation of the seminal 1650 map by the same name).
California is still shown as an island (the insular depiction first appeared on a 1625 map by Henry Briggs, and was widely popularized by Sanson..until father Kino established its peninsular nature in 1705).
Louisiana and New Orleans are not shown, even though the territory was claimed for France by Cavelier de le Salle in 1682, and that New Orleans had been established in 1718.
New Amsterdam is still shown (after the English took over the Dutch colony in 1664, and they renamed the city in honor of their commander: the Duke of York, hence New York).
Excellent hand colour
Very good condition
code : M3875
Cartographer : SANSON Nicolas
Date : 1699
Size : 20*27.5 cms
availability : Sold
Price : Sold
Nicolas Sanson (1600-1667) is generally acknowledged as the founder of the great French school of geographers and cartographers that supplanted the Dutch as the leading European map-makers. His work was acclaimed for its geographical accuracy and high standard of engraving. As a consequence, his many maps received a wide diffusion. His career marks the start of the process by which Paris superseded Amsterdam as the centre of European map production.
Nicolas studied Ancient History as a young man, and this awoke in him an interest in classical geography. His first map, of ancient Gaul was made in 1618, when he was only 18. Sanson had three sons, Nicolas (1626-1648), Guillaume (d.1703) and Adrien (d.1708), and a grandson Pierre Moullard-Sanson (d.1730), all of whom were involved in the family’s map-making activities.
After Sanson settled in Paris his work came to the attention of King Louis XIII, who eventually appointed Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roi, one of whose duties was to tutor the King in geography. Sanson published some 300 maps in his career, though his first most famous atlas, the folio “Cartes Generales De Toutes Les Parties Du Monde” was not published until 1658. Sanson also prepared a series of quarto atlases of the different continents. These scarce atlases are more frequently encountered in the Dutch piracy, engraved by Anthony d’Winter, first published in 1683.
The Sanson atlases are rarely found with a standard set of maps; the practice seems to have been that additional, or revised, plates would be inserted as available. After Sanson’s death the business was continued by his two surviving sons and grandson, in partnership with, and later superseded by Alexis Hubert Jaillot.
