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Item #25739 L'Amerique suivant le R. P. Charlevoix J.te, Mr. De La Condamine, et plusiers autres nouv.le observations. Georges Louis LE ROUGE.

L'Amerique suivant le R. P. Charlevoix J.te, Mr. De La Condamine, et plusiers autres nouv.le observations

Paris: 1746. Copper-engraved map, period hand-colouring in outline. Table at the bottom left. Sheet size: 21 3/4 x 30 3/4 inches.

Mid-18th century French map of North and South America showing the latest Russian and English discoveries in the Arctic: one of the earliest depictions of the discoveries of Bering's second expedition.

This decorative map by Le Rouge shows North and South America, with the discoveries of Charlevoix and Condamine added in Canada and the Amazon, respectively. Interestingly, it also shows Aleksei Chirikov's discoveries on the northwest coast during Bering's second expedition, as well as Middleton's Repulse Bay in the Arctic. Concerning the former, Wroth writes: "In 1746 the royal geographer, George Louis Le Rouge, brought out a map entitled L'Amerique, in the northwest corner of which is shown a portion of the 1741 routes of Chirikov and De L'Isle de la Croyere to and from the American coast, the earliest cartographical record, it seems from present knowledge, of the American discoveries of the second Bering expedition. This map antedates by six years the publication of the De L'Isle -Buache map ... There is ground for belief that during his stay in Russia of twenty-one years J.N. Delisle sent to France through the French embassy copies of maps which passed through his hands as an employee and associate of the Academy of Science. Doubtless intended for the information of the French government, these would have become available to Le Rouge as royal geographer" (Wroth, Early Cartographer of the Pacific, p. 222). Since Wroth's essay, copies of the Le Rouge map have been found without the discoveries of Bering's second expedition, suggesting two issues of the map, with the second issue possibly issued at a date later than 1746 but retaining the original date in the cartouche.

Wroth, Cartography of the Pacific, 92.

Item #25739

Price: $1,800.00

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