Orbis Vetus et Orbis Veteris Utraque Continens: Sanson/Mortier c.1690

• Title: Orbis Vetus et Orbis Veteris Utraque Continens
• Author: Nicolas Sanson/Pierre Mortier 
• Date: c.1690
• Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving 
• Condition: 

  A nice impression with light soiling and archival repairs to a number of separations and tiny tears along the centerfold.

• Inches: 25 x 21 1/4 [Paper]
• Centimeters: 63.5 x 53.9
• Product ID: 308049

This finely engraved and uncommon double-hemisphere world map is a close copy of Sanson's map that was published first in 1665 and then subsequently updated until 1694. The map illustrates the ancient world inside of a contemporary outline of the world, with classical place names in the eastern hemisphere, and just a handful of mythical place names in the western hemisphere. The Americas are described as Atlantis Insula. The island of California appears beneath a substantial, blank, and ambiguously defined northwestern landmass. The Great Lakes are open-ended, and there are embellished depictions of mountains and rivers throughout the western hemisphere. French cartography from the mid-17th to mid-18th centuries disregarded the findings of Dutch explorers and alternatively incorporated fanciful and misleading representations of Australia and New Zealand. This edition by Mortier includes a small map of the ancient world at bottom center, as well as three diagrams of wind roses at top.