L’Asie en plussieurs cartes nouvelles et exactes: & en divers traitses de geographie, et d’histoire

Paris: chez l’Autheur, 1662. SECOND EDITION. Complete with 17 double-page engraved maps hand-colored in outline. Contemporary mottled calf, corner edges neatly repaired, interior has some minor dampstaining mainly on text and on blank verso of maps, last blank leaf torn on lower fore-edge. A contemporary signature on first blank leaf. Similar to L’Amerique, this atlas of the continent of Asia was first printed in 1652 and reprinted here with a new title page. The maps are all dated 1652 with (only one dated 1653) and do not include the address of Mariette. The atlas features maps of India, Persia, China, Japan, the Maldives, Arabia and the Philippines, among others.

Just prior to publication of this series of works (which also included atlases of Europe and Africa), Sanson formed a partnership with Pierre Mariette, an engraver and printseller. Pursuant to their contract, Sanson drew the maps and Mariette engraved and printed them. Each maintained possession of half of the plates, and they were allowed to exchange and/or buy from one another. Some bore the address of Sanson, others Mariette. But Sanson allowed Mariette to store his plates, and Mariette without prior agreement started placing his address on Sanson’s plates. In time, a lawsuit which had been prosecuted was settled when both died and their respective sons took over the business.

This atlas is a fine examples of French mapping by the foremost French cartographer of the seventeenth century. Sanson (1600-1667), “Geographe Ordinaire du Roi” to Louis XIII, is considered the founder of French cartography and is generally acknowledged as the originator of the great age of French cartography.