A Superb Map Showing the Island of California, "Amerique Septentrionale Divisee en ses Principales Parties, ou sont Distingues les uns des Autres les Estats...", Sanson/Jaillot

Subject: Colonial North America
Period: 1698 (circa)
Publication: L'Atlas Francois
Color: Hand Color
Size: 18 x 25.4

This beautiful map of the Americas shows California as an island in the style of the second Sanson model (1656) with the indented northern coastline. A small peninsula Agubela de Gato is the only part of the Pacific coastline shown north of California. A strip of Terre de Jesso is shown in the Pacific immediately west of northern California. Santa Fe is shown along the R. del Norte (Rio Grande River), but the river erroneously drains into the Gulf of California. The two western Great Lakes are open-ended, and Lake Erie is too far south, split by the 40th parallel. Politically the map shows the British colonies confined to the Eastern Seaboard and extending south only to a large Virginia. The Carolinas are labeled Floride Francoise and both New Sweden (N. Suede) and New Amsterdam are shown. The large Louisiana region is labeled Floride and is shown as a Spanish possession. Beautifully engraved by Cordier. This is a slightly reduced version of his map of 1674. It can be distinguished from the early version by the size and location of the distance scale. It is also dedicated to the French King rather than to the Dauphin. This is Burden's second state with the imprint showing the date 169 (without the final digit) in the distance scale cartouche. See also lot 851 for R.V. Tooley's The Mapping of America and lot 852 for Philip Burden's The Mapping of North America - A List of Printed Maps that both describe this map.

References: Burden #709; McCorkle #695.4; McLaughlin #101; Tooley (Amer.) p. 121, #37.
Condition: A
Nice dark impression with a small spot south of Cuba, a printer's crease in the Arctic, and light toning along the edges of the sheet. There are minor ink notations in several place names that do not distract.