Cabinet of Discoveries

WMP010
Hemisphere Meridional pour voir distinctement les Terres Australes

Elegant antique map of the Southern Hemisphere. It shows South America, the Southern part of Africa, Indonesia, Australia (joined to new Guinea and without an East Coast), Tasman’s coasts of Tasmania and New Zealand and many South Pacific islands, including two Solomon Islands archipelagos, many degrees of longitude apart.

The long chain of islands attributed to Magellan and Gallego, stretching from Tierra del Fuego right across the South Pacific and the as yet unsighted Southern continent, which featured so prominently on earlier maps, have been deleted.

By Guillaume de L’Isle (1675-1726). 1714. De l’Isle is the leading map maker of the 18th century. Building on the work of Sanson, he was instrumental in France taking over from Holland as the leader and trendsetter in map-making. His maps dominated by their accuracy, clarity and their incorporation of the latest geographical information. He did away with elaborate decoration (at a time when his German contemporaries were on the contrary making it ever more showy). He was also strongly opposed to drawing conjectural coast lines, and suspicious of uncorroborated reports.

This map is a leading example of his approach and served as a basis for maps of the South for the remainder of the 18th century. Although he was mistaken in duplicating the Solomons, his suppression of the Magellan/Gallego island chain and of the imaginary coast lines of the Terra Australis Incognita, makes this map a large incremental step forward in accuracy. As such it is a milestone in the mapping of Australia, Antactica and the South Pacific.

471 x 464 mm. Contemporary outline colouring. Excellent condition. Tooley 1512. $1750