Description
This elegant map of the Pacific by Vincenzo Coronelli extends from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the west to the Americas in the east.
Coronelli was one of the greatest cartographers and globemakers of the seventeenth century, famous for having constructed a pair of the world’ largest globes for King Louis XIV. Measuring over fifteen feet in diameter (4.5m) and weighing approximately two tons, the globes were large enough to hold up to thirty people inside. The map is decorated with an elaborate title cartouche which features three aquatic cupids, two holding a large open seashell filled with pearls, sea grass and coral, while the other holds the arms of the Holy Roman Empire. Beneath the title is a dedication to Cavalier Giulio Giustinian. In the centre of the map below the equator, a note states that the Spanish crossed from New Spain to the Philippines in sixty days. A line tracing the important voyage of Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten in 1615 is also shown. This journey established Tierra del Fuego as an island and opened up a new shipping route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Le Maire Strait, in direct competition with the VOC which only possessed a patent to travel to the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope and the Magellan Strait.
California is shown as a large island. According to Greek legend, California was the name given to a mythical island believed to be populated by beautiful Amazon warriors and mapmakers began using the name in the early sixteenth century to refer to the unexplored regions of the American west coast. The concept of California as an island arose from the account of Father Antonio de la Ascesion of Sebastian Vizcaino’ 1602 expedition on the California coast. It was 1701 before mapmakers began to show California as a peninsula and not until 1746, when Father Ferdinando Consag led an expedition to the mouth of the Colorado River, which conclusively proved as fact. To the north of Japan are two semi-mythical islands named ‘’ and ‘ lant’, illustrating the uncertainty of cartographic knowledge north of Japan following the exploration of the Dutchman de Vries in 1643.
The discoveries of Tasman on his first and second voyages 1642-4 are shown with the exception of those on the northwest coast of Australia due to the geographical limits of the map. The islands of St Peter and St Francis, discovered by Nuyts in 1627, are shown and record the first charting of any part of the South Australian coast. References: Clancy p.88, ill.6.20, Clancy (R) ill. inside cover, Moreland ill.p.277, Suarez (P) 98, Tooley 350.