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Description

Garishly colored example of Sanson's seminal map of North America, arguably the most important of all 17th Century maps of North America. Sanson's map employed tremendous care and detail, relying upon the Jesuit Relations for previously unrecorded details. The map employs the sinusoidal Sanson-Flamstead projection, named after Sanson and English Astronomer John Flamsteed. It was the first map to delineate 5 separate Great Lakes in recognizable fashion. First map to name Lakes Superior and Ontario. The map is based upon the accounts of Father Paul Ragueneau and Jean Nicollet. Early location of Montreal. First reference to N. Suede, the Swedish colony founded in 1638. Nouvelle Amsterdam is shown as an island off the coast. S. Fe., Navajo, Apache and Taosij, appear for the first time on a map, derived from Fra. Alonso de Benavides explorations. Perhaps the most important and influential North American map of the mid 17th Century. Burden 294; McLaughlin 12. An interesting example, garishly colored by an old and not particularly skilled hand. The color aside, the map is generally in very good condition.

Nicolas Sanson Biography

Nicholas Sanson (1600-1667) is considered the father of French cartography in its golden age from the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth. Over the course of his career he produced over 300 maps; they are known for their clean style and extensive research. Sanson was largely responsible for beginning the shift of cartographic production and excellence from Amsterdam to Paris in the later-seventeenth century.

Sanson was born in Abbeville in Picardy. He made his first map at age twenty, a wall map of ancient Gaul. Upon moving to Paris, he gained the attention of Cardinal Richelieu, who made an introduction of Sanson to King Louis XIII. This led to Sanson's tutoring of the king and the granting of the title ingenieur-geographe du roi

His success can be chalked up to his geographic and research skills, but also to his partnership with Pierre Mariette. Early in his career, Sanson worked primarily with the publisher Melchior Tavernier. Mariette purchased Tavernier’s business in 1644. Sanson worked with Mariette until 1657, when the latter died. Mariette’s son, also Pierre, helped to publish the Cartes générales de toutes les parties du monde (1658), Sanson' atlas and the first French world atlas.