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Amerique Septentrionale Divisée en ses Principales Parties . . .
Paris
Pierre Mortier
1694
Size :
85,5 x 49 cm
Color :
Hand Colored
Condition :
B
Technique :
Copper engraving
Reference : 442-4
€2,800.00
Description
First state of Pierre Mortier's uncommon map of North America
The map printed in a wide-format, shows all that was then known of North America on a curved projection. It is derived from Jaillot's 1674 map, but most probably through Mortier's own large version of it published in 1692. It bears the same ornate title cartouche along with another to frame the various national scales of distance.
To the north, the region is accurately described, but significant gaps in the coastline hint at ongoing explorations and the hope of a Northwest Passage. At the west end of the passage is the "Terre de Iesso". The land of Jesso is a result of the confusion of Maerten Gerritsz Vries when sailing in the waters north of Japan. It was in fact the island of Hokkaido.
To the south, the Mississippi is called the Chucagua and is farther east than previous mappings. There is a massive lake in Florida called Apalache, a mis-mapping of Lake George stemming from the work of De Bry and Le Moyne.
California is shown as an island.
The map comes from the Atlas Royal, dedicated to the Duke of Burgundy. The atlas was published for a few short years in Paris but produced in Amsterdam under the direction of Pierre Mortier. The latter does not appear to have used the plate in any other atlas. By the early 1700s he preferred to draw upon the more up to date cartography of Guillaume De L'Isle. After Mortier's death in 1711, 4 new states of the map were produced until 1792. They are the work of the Covens and Mortier publishing firm, the Ottens family and Jan Barent Elwe.
Burden records 5 states of the map, this one being the first (Burden 700).
JAILLOT, Alexis Hubert
Alexis Hubert Jaillot was one of the most influential French cartographers of the 17th century. He was born around 1632 in Avignon-lès-Saint-Claude and showed a good talent for art and drawing from his childhood. He moved with his brother to Paris in 1657 in the hope of taking advantage of Louis XIV's appeal to artists and scientists in France. They quickly gained a reputation and the title of "Sculpteur du Roy". In 1665, Jaillot married Jeanne Berey, daughter of Nicolas I, the king's engraver and illuminator for maps. When Nicolas II died, he took over the Berey printing house.
Jaillot's good fortune was to enter the cartography market at a particularly favourable time. At the beginning of 1668, under Louis XIV, a particularly fruitful period began for France. Due to the constant territorial expansion, there was a great demand for maps depicting the French conquests and the new frontiers. In 1671, he had them engraved with a large number of drawings and maps donated by Sanson, filling the gap left by the destruction of Blaeu's printing house in 1672.
His 1681 atlas, the Atlas Nouveau, was so commercially successful that it was copied illegally by other publishers. His fame grew to the point that on 20 July 1686 he was appointed "Géographe du Roy" and received a substantial annual pension; this title enabled him to defend himself against numerous forgers. One of his finest works is Le Neptune François, ou Atlas Nouveau des Cartes Marine. From the beginning of the 18th century onwards, his map production diminished: there was a demand for more and more up-to-date maps, which he was unable to provide. His son, Bernard-Jean-Hyacinthe Jaillot, known as Bernard Jaillot (1673-1739), and his grandson Bernard-Antoine (?-1749), followed in his footsteps and were both ordinary geographers to the king.