1771. · Paris
by Robert de Vaugondy, Didier
Paris: Chez l'Autheur, 1771.. Copper engraved folding map with original handcolored outlining. Sheet size: 20 1/2 x 26 inches. Contemporary paste paper boards, manuscript label on front board, partial manuscript on spine. Contemporary Latin manuscript waste used as pastedowns. Slight toning along fold lines, but overall a fine copy. The scarce second issue of this excellent 18th-century depiction of North and South America, by one of France's greatest cartographers. This second issue is similar in layout to the first, but it renders more of the Northwest Coast of North America, which is left as "terra incognita" in the 1749 version. The political realities of the time are spelled out in the interesting engraved panel on the right-hand side which lists the holdings of Britain, France, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, and Spain in the Americas, as they were after the conclusion of the French and Indian War and prior to the American Revolution. Also included in this panel is a list of the dominant religions in the region. The regions held by each European power are outlined in color on the map. The map also includes two insets: one of Martinique and the other of Santo Domingo, two immensely profitable French colonies (they shared Santo Domingo with the Spanish).
Vaugondy's maps were often used by him and others as pieces in larger atlases, rather than bound for individual use, as here. OCLC located only four individual copies of the map, at the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Michigan, Sächsiche Landesbibliothek in Germany, and Princeton. (Inventory #: WRCAM52713)
Vaugondy's maps were often used by him and others as pieces in larger atlases, rather than bound for individual use, as here. OCLC located only four individual copies of the map, at the University of Texas at Arlington, University of Michigan, Sächsiche Landesbibliothek in Germany, and Princeton. (Inventory #: WRCAM52713)