| Summary: | 18th century Coper engraving handcolored with watercolor. Outline color. Printed in upper left corner in tablet cartouche: "Planisphere Terrestre. Suivant les nouvelles Observations des Astronomes. Dressé et presenté au Roy tres Chretien par Mr. Cassini le Fils. De l'Academie Royale des Sciences. / A Leide Ches Pierre van der Aa. Avec Privilege." Printed in upper right corner in tablet cartouche: "Planispherum Terrestre, Secundum recentiores Astronorum. Observationes A. D. Cassini Filio. Regiae Scientarum Academie Socio. Delineatum. Dicatumque Regi Chrisstianissimo. Lugduni Batavorum. Excudit Petrus Vander Aa. Cum Privilegio." Printed on left edge in banner cartouche under cherub's arm: "Hic Astericus * loca denotat quorum Longitudines fuerunt emanaatae mediantious Telscopus et Satellitum Jovis Elipsibus." Printed on right edge in banner cartouche under cherub's arm: "Get Asterique * marquee les Lieux, don't on á corrigé les Longitudes par le moyen des Telescopes et des Eclipses des Satellites de Jupiter." Printed in lower left corner along bottom edge: "J. Goeree del." Printed in lower right corner along bottom edge: "G.V. Gouwen Fecit." Written in pencil in upper right corner: "1713." Illustrates the world from northern pole projection. Depicts California as an island and shows a northern land mass connecting Asia and North America called "Inconnues, ou, Terre de Iesso." Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea are shown incompletely drawn with lines suggesting land mass. Australia is labeled as "Terres Australes" and as "Nouvelle Hollande." Small stars or asterisks mark places throughout the map where telescope observations were made by the French Academy of Sciences. Includes illustrations of classical figures surrounding the north pole projection of earth. In lower right corner, a god is shown holding a sphere in one hand next to a goat and a group of children warming themselves around a fire. In the lower left corner, another god is shown holding scales. In the upper left and right corners, other figures appear in the sky on clouds surrounded by winged cherubim. Prime Meridian: l'Isle de Fer. Scale: c.a. 1:65,000,000. This map is actually a derivative map of a map made by Jacques Cassini de Thury (1677-1756). The map was first published in 1695 in Paris by J. Nolin. The map represents the astronomical observations of the French Academy of Sciences made throughout the 1670s and 1680s under the direction of Jacques's father, Jean Dominique Cassini (1625-1712). More than 40 different locations throughout the world were used to observe eclipses of Jupiter's satellites in order to understand longitude better, producing a map that is considerably "more accurate than the otherwise larger and grander map by Doncken and Robyn of 1687" (Shirley, 573). The map uses small stars to mark the places where these observations happened (Shirley, 573; Brown, 64). Helpfully, historian, Lloyd A. Brown lists these places in a table (Brown, 68). In 1713, Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733), a Dutch publisher, published this particular map in Nicholas's Gueudeville's "Le Nouveau Theátre du Monde." This version of the map prints the titles in French and Latin the upper left and right corners, respectively, rather than printing the title in the circumference of the actual map as in the original version. This version also shows the coastlines tinted in color. Illustrator Jan Goeree (1670-1731) has added illustrations of classical figures and Gilliam van der Gouwen (fl. 1669-1713) engraved the new images. According to Brown, the figures were "engraved on a rectangular plate and apparently impressed after the circular map was printed" (Brown, 64). The Cassinis were important figures in the mapmaking world. Jean Dominique Cassini, originally an Italian astronomer and mathematician, moved to France and was appointed director of Paris Observatory in 1669. He produced a number of maps before his death in 1712. After his death his son, Jacques Cassini de Thury, became director and conducted a major survey known as the Triangulation of France with his own son, César Francois Cassini. This survey led to the famous Carte de Cassini which was finally published in 1789 (Tooley, 107; Moreland and Bannister 124-5). Source(s): Brown, Lloyd A. "Jean Domenique Cassini and His World Map of 1696." Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1941. Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Shirley, Rodney W. "The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700. Riverside, CT: Early World Press Ltd., 2001. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979. Wagner, Henry R. "The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America to the Year 1800." Vol. II. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1937.
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