Double Hemisphere map of the world from the house of the famous map maker Pierre Du Val.

This fascinating map has been a little under-described by the most famous of all world map carto-bibliographies. Rodney Shirley in his monumental tome “The Mapping of the World” lists it as number 443 and states that it was first issued in 1668 with a later issue in 1678. More recent scholarship has discovered that it was first issued in 1661 and published by Nicolas Berey. It was then issued in 1668 and 1678, published by Jaillot with a final additional edition issued in 1682 again by Jaillot again but with a new “Privilegio”. Neither the 1661 or the 1682 editions were known to Shirley when his work was first issued.

Although Duval’s map is broadly based on Nicolas Sanson’s map of 1660, closer examination reveals several crucial differences between the two maps. Du Val’s engraving style is finer and more detailed than Sanson’s; he also adds substantially to the nomenclature on the map which sows almost as much confusion as illumination. Du Val manages to re-invigorate several older geographical myths which had been slowly losing in their prevalence. The greatest was the existence of the Great Southern Land or “Terres Australes et Inconnues”. This was a popular misconception which believed that there must be a large southern landmass to counterbalance the northern landmass. The North Pole had been discovered and explorers were looking for its southern counterpart. Due to the lack of knowledge regarding the Southern Hemisphere, many cartographers habitually integrated a collection of myths and place names from dubious accounts as well as genuine discoveries within a generally tenuous southern landmass which was usually shown all across their maps.

On this map, Du Val attempts to incorporate new Dutch discoveries in the region of Australia or New Holland into this southern landmass. Hence the small discoveries of the New Zealand coastline made by Tasman have been added to the Southern Land and the close coastline of the “Pais d’Antoine Diemens” (modern Tasmania) has not quite been connected to the mainland but it seems to be just waiting for confirmation. New Holland or what became Australia is separated but it only shows a small section of the western coastline, a far cry from the far more accurate contemporaneous maps provided by Dutch map makers such as Joan Blaeu. Another small piece of coastline, entitled “Carpentaria” is drawn very close to the Southern Land, again just waiting for the final confirmation of its connection.

Du Val sows further confusion onto this issue by adding several place names from much earlier maps within the landmass, including “Beach, Luca, and Terre des Perroquets”. Several of these names were popularised by their presence on the maps of the world by Abraham Ortelius issued in 1570 and 1587. “Luca” has been identified as Lucach or modern Lopburi in Thailand. It was mistakenly described in a translation of Marco Polo’s “Il Milione” as being below Java Minor (Sumatra) rather than below Vietnam as was intended. “Beach” went through several translations and different spellings but is now believed to be a variant of “Luca”. The “Terre des Perroquets” or Kingdom of Parrots, often associated with Brazil, originates from an incorrect translation of Gerhard Mercator’s 1541 globe which resulted in Pedro Alvares Cabral’s landfall in northeastern South America in 1500 to be placed thousands of miles south on the “Terra Australis Incognita.”

In North America, Du Val follows the most famous geographical misconception from this time, the belief that California was an island off the west coast of America. Just north of California are the mythical Straits of Anian, again sourced from Marco Polo, which were long believed to be the Pacific entrance of the Northwest Passage. Button’s Bay, here a body of water within the much larger Hudson’s Bay is shown without a western limit, a strong suggestion that it would join with the Straits of Anian on the western shore of the continent.

The western side of the continent shows yet another great myth of the time, the Land of Iesso or Jedso. This is believed to be modern Hokkaido but at the time of this map, its exact nature had not been determined and there was a strong suggestion that it formed if not an actual land bridge then certainly an enormous peninsula stretching from North America to Asia. Du Val leaves this question open, with the western boundary of this land disappearing off the edge of the map and appearing on the extreme edge of the eastern hemisphere with a very narrow strait between Iesso and Asia entitled “Dest de Iesso”. A further misconception in the Far East is the portrayal of the Korean Peninsula as an island, again a hangover from maps of that region issued in the early 17th century; di Martini’s map of Japan published by Blaeu in 1655 firmly established Korea as a Peninsula.

Aesthetically, Du Val’s map is also radically different than Sanson’s counterpart. The map adds two beautiful small celestial hemispheres reminiscent of the designs of the great astronomer Andreas Cellarius. A trio of compass and wind roses are situated on three corners complimented by a climatological sphere on the lower right. Finally, Du Val adds four panels of text discussing the nature and terms used in the cartography of the earth.

This example of the map is the 1661 edition not present in Shirley under that date but described as entry 443. [WLD4802]