| Summary: | 18th century Copper engraving handcolored with watercolor. Outline color. Double hemispheric projection. Relief shown pictorially. Printed near top in center in cartouche: "Most humbly Dedicated Printed in cartouche in upper left corner: "A New Map of the World in two Hemispheres &c. Most humbly Dedicated to His Sacred Majesty George King of Great Britain &c. 1721." Printed beneath the title cartouche is a diagram showing planets revolving around the sun with the text: "Copernicus System." Printed at the top in center is a short selection from Sir Isaac Newton's "Principia." describing his theory of the tides: "The Theory of the Tides From Sr. Isaac Newtons Phil. Nat. Princ. Math. If the Earth were not affected by the Action of the Sun and Moon…"Printed in the upper left corner is a circular diagram showing the constellations that appear in the Northern Hemisphere, including Cassiopoeia, Taurus, Cereberus and Pegasus with the text: "The Northern Ceolestial Hemisphere." Printed in the upper right corner is a circular diagram showing the constellations that appear in the Southern Hemisphere with the text: "The Southern Coelestial Hemisphere." Printed at the bottom in the center is a smaller projection of the world with the text: "A Projection of ye World upon Equidistant Meridians and Parallels." Around the double hemispheric projections are circular diagrams with symbols representing Saturn, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter. Printed in Jupiter: "Jupiter with his 4 Satellites. By Mr. Cassini." Printed in the lower left corner: "The Sun Enlightening the Moon." Printed in the lower right corner: "The Sun Enlightening ye Earth." Printed in Western Hemisphere's projection in Antarctic Circle: "Sold by Philip Overton at ye Golden Buck John Lenthall at ye Talbott and Thomas Taylor at ye Golden Lyon all in Fleet Street." Printed in Eastern Hemisphere's projection in Antarctic Circle: "The Inhabitants if any there be who dwell within this circle have continual Night when ye Sun is in ye Tropick of Cancer & continual Day when in the Tropick of Capricorn." World map depicting South America and Africa appearing slightly distorted. The outline of New Zealand and Australia are visible. Shows the the mythical land of "Jesso or Jeco" in the Pacific Ocean. Also shows mythical land of Anian in northwest North America, although most of the rest of northwest North America is left blank. Of note, California is shown as an island. Insets containing smaller maps and diagrams depicting various constellations, planets, and celestial observations appear throughout the map. Scale: varies. 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). The land of "Iesso" (a.k.a Jesso, Yezo, Jeco, etc) was an island allegedly lying north of Japan. Later identified as Hokkaido, explorers in the seventeenth century were unsure of its nature. The Russians attempted to discern whether Yezo was indeed an island or part of Asia with a number of expeditions in the seventeenth century. Under the reign of Peter the Great, the explorers were able to chart Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands. In the 1780s, a French expedition sailed between Yezo and Korea, and then, through the Kuriles (Tooley and Bricker, 130). Anian was another mythical kingdom that appeared on many maps. This area usually appears between North America and Asia as a possible passage. The name originates in Marco Polo's travel reports (Wagner, 426). The Strait of Anian was first recorded in a pamphlet in 1562 by Giacomo Gastaldi. The Strait then appears on a map in 1566, usually at 67 degrees latitude. Wagner writes that the strait usually appeared as a "narrow crooked strait connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Polar Ocean." Over time Anian was used to describe a strait that connected to Hudson's Bay. Other cartographers located the Strait of Anian near Japan where it stood as the strait found by De Vries in 1643 (Wagner, 426). Anian and the associated Strait of Anian eventually became known as the Bering Strait (Hayes 34). Source(s): Hayes, Derek. "America Discovered: A Historical Atlas of North American Exploration. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 2004. Moreland, Carl and David Bannister. "Antique Maps: A Collector's Handbook." New York: Longman Group, Ltd., 1983. Tooley, Ronald Vere. "Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers." Hertfordshire: Map Collector Publications Limited, 1979. Tooley, Ronald Vere and Charles Bricker. "Landmarks of Mapmaking: An Illustrated Survey of Maps and Mapmakers." Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1968. Wagner, Henry R. "The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America to the year 1800 Volume 2." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1937.
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