PBA Galleries

143 + [1] ad pp. Illustrated with symbols representing cards. (16mo) 9x5.3 cm (3½x2¼"), wrappers with engravings of 4 maps (2 on front, 2 on rear).

Very rare book presenting a geographical game, which is played with a standard world map and a standard deck of cards. The wrappers show four small maps of the four parts of the world. The map of America shows California as an island. The text provides the rules of the game and a brief descriptive geography of the regions of the world, including L'Isle de Californie. Each region of the world is identified with a particular card; California, the two of spades. Though a standard deck can be used, there was a special deck designed for the game, with maps on each of the cards; there is one card from one of the special decks present, Grande Tartarie, which would be the queen of diamonds on a standard deck. OCLC/WorldCat lists only one copy of the book, at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, with P. Mortier listed as publisher; Covens & Mortier succeeded P. Mortier around 1711, making the present copy slightly later. The map of the Americas with California an island, on the rear wrapper, is not listed in Glenn McLaughlin's cartobibliography of maps showing an insular California.

Provenance: Loose, The Hague, San Francisco Book Fair, 2/91