1669 / 1690 Map of North America

Definitive 17th-Century French Map of North America. Rare state.

This is Guillaume Sanson's 1669 map of North America, in its scarce second state of 1690. It is one of the most elegant expressions of 17th-century French cartography, presenting the dominant geographical model of the Americas of the period. The work was derived from the authoritative cartography of the French mapmaker Nicolas Sanson, whose authorship his son Guillaume emphasized in the cartouche.

A Closer Look

The map presents North America, including the Canadian Maritimes, the West Indies, and Central America. Coverage embraces North America from Baffin Bay and Greenland, south to include Central America, the West Indies, and parts of the Spanish Main. It similarly extends from California eastwards to the Azores and the British Isles.

In a departure from most Sanson maps, Guillaume has included a vignette to the left of the garlanded cartouche: a naked couple, the man wielding an axe on something out-of-frame, whilst in the foreground a woman turns a spit over a jolly fire. On the spit rotates a human leg: over 150 years later, Vespucci's report of American cannibals still commanded European imaginations.

The Map: California as an Island

The map presents a striking rendering of California as an Island - a theory of which the Sansons were a major proponent. Although the notion first appeared in texts in the early 16th century, the first maps showing California as an island emerged in England and the Netherlands in the 1620s. Sanson's influential adoption of convention entrenched the idea of Insular California for the remainder of the 17th century.

New Mexico

East of the sea separating California from the mainland lies Nouveau Mexique. Santa Fe is shown on the west bank of the Rio de Norte, which is a conflation of the Rio Grande with the Colorado - the river is shown running from Santa Fe to the southwest rather than to the Gulf of Mexico. The river has its source in a gigantic (and imaginary) lake, appearing amidst the lands of the Apaches de Navaio, the Apaches de Xila, and the Apaches Vaqueros. This lake may result from reports of the Great Salt Lake associated with the Onate and Coronado expeditions.

Cities of Gold

In addition to Santa Fe, New Mexico, is shown to contain the land of Quivira. Quivira, along with Cibola, was a supposed treasure city hidden in the then-unexplored American West. Other tantalizing features appear: for example, near the sea separating California from the mainland is Lago do Oro, literally a 'Lake of Gold.'

Canada and The Great Lakes

Sanson's geography of the northeastern portions of North America was authoritative and, for its day, accurate. Hudson's Bay appears in nearly recognizable form, albeit with imaginary openings to the west, suggestive of hoped-for connections with the Pacific. Sanson's mapping of the Great Lakes was the first to show all five lakes in recognizable form, although lakes Superior and Michigan are shown with their western reaches left unfinished, again suggesting the possibility of a navigable water route to the Pacific.

Colonial America

Although the Northeast is dominated by 'Canada ou Nouvelle France,' the claims of France's European rivals are grudgingly acknowledged. Nouvelle Angleterre (New England), Nouveau Pays Bas (New Netherland / New York), and Nouvelle Suede (New Sweden / New Jersey) are shown - though squeezed down to the coastline, with the place names relegated to the ocean. This 1690 state also appends the placename 'N. Yorc' to indicate the passage of the New Netherlands to the British. Virginia is also named.

The American Southeast

In Spanish Florida, which extends north to include most of the American Southeast, Lake Apalache, or the 'Great Freshwater Lake of the American Southeast' is noted. This lake, first mapped by De Bry and Le Moyne in the mid-16th century, is a mis-mapping of Florida's Lake George. While De Bry correctly mapped the lake as part of the River May or St. John's River, cartographers in Europe erroneously associated it with the Savannah River, which, instead of flowing from the south to the Atlantic (as does the May), flowed almost directly from the northwest. Lake Apalache was subsequently relocated somewhere in Carolina or Georgia, where Sanson mapped it and where it would remain for hundreds of years.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved in 1669 for inclusion in the Sanson atlases, which were published in partnership with Pierre Mariette. This is the 1690, second state of the map, which includes the notation for 'N. Yorc.' The partnership with Mariette would continue until 1696, when Guillaume's nephew Pierre Mouillart-Sanson acquired the firm's stock and archives; he would continue to use the plate in his own atlases. The 1669, first state of this map is well represented in institutional collections with more than 30 examples noted, but we find only 5 listings for this state of the map.

Cartographers

Guillaume Sanson (1633 - 1703) was a French cartographer active in the latter part of the 17th century. He is the son of the legendary cartographer Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), and, along with his brother Adrien Sanson (1639 - 1718), took over the family firm on his father's death. Like his father, Guillaume Louis XIV granted him the official title, Geographe Ordinaire du Roy. Much of his work after 1671 was published in collaboration with Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (c. 1632 - 1712). Although the continued to published new maps, particularly Guillaume Sanson, the firm began to lose prestige and market share. In 1692, the brothers sold their geographical archive to their nephew Pierre-Moulart Sanson (1670 - 1730), who published a map catalog in 1696 and reissued the Sanson atlas. After Pierre-Moulart's death, many of the surviving map plates were acquired by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, setting the stage for another French cartographic dynasty.   Further Details...

Nicolas Sanson (December 20, 1600 - July 7, 1667) and his descendants were the most influential French cartographers of the 17th century and laid the groundwork for the Golden Age of French Cartography. Sanson was born in Picardy, but his family was of Scottish Descent. He studied with the Jesuit Fathers at Amiens. Sanson started his career as a historian where, it is said, he turned to cartography as a way to illustrate his historical studies. In the course of his research some of his fine maps came to the attention of King Louis XIII who, admiring the quality of his work, appointed Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roi. Sanson's duties in this coveted position included advising the king on matters of geography and compiling the royal cartographic archive. In 1644, he partnered with Pierre Mariette, an established print dealer and engraver, whose business savvy and ready capital enabled Sanson to publish an enormous quantity of maps. Sanson's corpus of some three hundred maps initiated the golden age of French mapmaking and he is considered the 'Father of French Cartography.' His work is distinguished as being the first of the 'Positivist Cartographers,' a primarily French school of cartography that valued scientific observation over historical cartographic conventions. The practice result of the is less embellishment of geographical imagery, as was common in the Dutch Golden Age maps of the 16th century, in favor of conventionalized cartographic representational modes. Sanson is most admired for his construction of the magnificent atlas Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde. Sanson's maps of North America, Amerique Septentrionale (1650), Le Nouveau Mexique et La Floride (1656), and La Canada ou Nouvelle France (1656) are exceptionally notable for their important contributions to the cartographic perceptions of the New World. Both maps utilize the discoveries of important French missionaries and are among the first published maps to show the Great Lakes in recognizable form. Sanson was also an active proponent of the insular California theory, wherein it was speculated that California was an island rather than a peninsula. After his death, Sanson's maps were frequently republished, without updates, by his sons, Guillaume (1633 - 1703) and Adrien Sanson (1639 - 1718). Even so, Sanson's true cartographic legacy as a 'positivist geographer' was carried on by others, including Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, Guillaume De L'Isle, Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, and Pierre Duval.   Further Details...

Source

Sanson, G., Cartes et tables de la géographie ancienne et nouvelle., (Paris: Mariette) 1690 - ????.    

Condition

Very good. Waterstaining to upper margin, just entering printed area. Generous margins and a bold strike; Original outline color.

References

OCLC 494257252. Burden, P., Mapping of North America II #404 state 2.