PBA Galleries

Copper-engraved map, hand-colored in outline. 48.5x59.9 cm. (19x23½"). Matted 25¼x29¼".

Second state of De l'Isle's important and highly influential map of North and South America, with the plain  lettering of the word "d'Amerique" in the title, though on this example there are fairly clear impressions on the longitudinal lines, which tended to deteriorate in the second state. For California, the west coast is taken north to Cap Mendocin and Cap Blanc, with the notation, "Entrée decouverte par Martin d'Aguilar." Wagner notes "Briggs names with some of the corrections made by Blaeu. The Mediterranean Sea of California has disappeared. Delisle retained Cabrillo's B. de Pinos and introduced a few, the I. Ste Anne, the B. de St. Martin, and the B. de la Medelaine, from other maps. It seems likely that he had read the account of the Vizcaino expedition Torquemada... On the Sonora coast the names are much the same as those on his 1700 map with a few additions from Kino's map and other sources in Sonora..." Like many of De l'Isle's maps, this one had a long life, as Tooley notes, "His map of America of 1722 was republished until 1830, revised in places but basically unchanged..." Portinaro & Knirsh Plate 114; Tooley p.13, #1, & Plate 1 state); Wagner NW Coast 523.