Mappemonde pour servir a l'histoire des Decouvertes et Conquestes des Portugais dans le Nouveau Monde

Oval-projection world map illustrating the discoveries of the early Portuguese and Spanish explorers. The routes of Da Gama, Cabral, and Magellan are specifically noted. This map was published to illustrate a history of the Portuguese discoveries by the French Jesuit scholar Joseph-Francois Lafitau.



The author makes note of the original name given to Brazil (Terre de S.te Croix) and uses the name 'Terre de Cortereal' for Labrador after the Gaspar Core-Real who is believed to have landed in Newfoundland around 1501. Lafitau also includes the mythical Terre des Perroquets, or 'Land of Parrots', in the South Atlantic. Intended as an overview, the map is only lightly detailed, but it does represent an unusual fusion of early 18th-century geography with the discoveries of the 15th- and 16th-centuries.



[WLD4519]