1679 Pierre DuVal Map of North America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic

This is the rare, first state of Pierre DuVal's 1679 map of eastern North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. DuVal's map significantly updates the earlier efforts of Nicolas Sanson, his uncle and teacher, and includes notations reflective of a new wave of exploration. Its eastern limits include the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the Azores, the Canary Islands and the Cap Verde Islands, and the coast of Africa from Morocco to the Guinea coast.

Updated Nomenclature

While DuVal's topography relies solidly on his uncle's work - for example witness the Sanson delineation of the Great Lakes - DuVal has taken pains to update the placenames to reflect current information. The map's right border features a text panel outlining the provinces and major cities of the countries included on the sheet from Canada down to Guyana, including New England and New York (interestingly, categorized as belonging to 'Canada, autrement Nle. France,' a snub also reflected in the coloration of the map if not the engraved boundary. This, too, has been updated. Whereas Sanson's maps refer to 'Nouveau Pays Bas,' DuVal has corrected this to 'New York'. New Sweden is still noted, although that colony had been conquered by the Dutch in 1655. In Acadia, Port Royal is included. This reflects the return of the town to France from Great Britain according to the 1667 Treaty of Breda. In New England, Boston is named. An attempted 1665 Northwest Passage is labeled (see below).

A Navigable Atlantic

DuVal's map includes three sailing tracks across the Atlantic - overall, simply emphasizing the navigability of that body of water connecting Europe with America. The tracks are embellished with ships sailing in the appropriate directions. The northernmost track, passing through the Davis and the Hudson Straits and on to Hudson's and Buttons Bay, is labeled in French 'The route taken in 1665 to go to Japan and China.' This is probably a reference to the attempted Northwest Passage of Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636/1640 - 1710). The 1665 voyage of this fur trader, adventurer, missionary, and explorer represented his third attempt to find a passage to the Pacific, this time sponsored by the English King Charles II. It achieved neither Japan nor China, but his efforts did lead to a 1670 royal charter granting exclusive rights to the land surrounding Hudson Bay, ultimately fostering the founding the Hudson's Bay Company.

Further south, the routes of ships sailing to and from Europe and the West Indies are delineated - with two different tracks indicated for the return to Europe. One of these passes between Florida and the Bahamas; another, passing between Cuba and Hispaniola, is labeled in French 'the Ancient route of the return of the Spanish.'

Separate Map or Part of Wall Map?

This was among the new maps engraved in Paris by Jean Baptiste Liebaux for inclusion with DuVal's Cartes Géographiques. It also was issued separately as part of DuVal's four-sheet map of the Western Hemisphere. The presence of a centerfold and a manuscript page number added to the verso indicates that this was either an example intended for the atlas or was included in a contemporary composite atlas. While DuVal did include this as the second part of his four-sheet map of the western hemisphere, his inclusion of individual titles and imprints on each sheet allowed him great flexibility in how this map could be sold or presented. They were sometimes offered separately as individual sheets and were also included in DuVal's atlas as well as being joinable as a wall map.

Publication History and Census

The present example is the 1679 first state, with DuVal's address in the imprint. A posthumous 1688 second state, with the imprint of DuVal's daughter and heir, is also recorded. The separate map is rare both on the market and in institutional collections, with only four copies so listed. OCLC lists the four-sheet map only at the University of Bern and the Clements. DuVal's atlas is also quite rare: we see only seven examples in institutional collections. We have seen this separate map in no auction records or dealers' catalogs, and we have not seen any other examples on the market.