18th century map of the North Pacific

BUACHE, Philippe.

Carte des Nouvelles Découvertes au Nord de la Mer Du Sud, Tant à l'Est de la Sibérie et du Kamtchatka, Qu'à l'Ouest de la Nouvelle France.
Venice: Francesco Santini, 1776. Original outline colour. 470 x 650mm.

A Venetian edition of the infamous map of the North Pacific that introduced the 'Mer de l'Ouest' to cartography. It was compiled by Buache from the work of Joseph de L'Isle, showing the coasts of Asia south to Japan and America to Yucatan. While it shows some important discoveries by the Russians on the Asian side of the Bering Strait, it also included the supposed discoveries of Admiral de Fonte and Juan de Fuca, including a vast inland sea, the 'Mer de L'Ouest', in Canada and a waterway stretching from the Pacific almost to Baffin's Bay.
Copied extensively by other French mapmakers, the myth was finally disproved by English explorers James Cook & George Vancouver.
De L'Isle spent much of his career in Russia, producing the 'Atlas Russicus' (the first Russian atlas) with Ivan Kyrilov and founding the 'Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg'. He returned to Paris is 1747 with a large map collection, including (unfortunately for the reputation of French cartography) the manuscript of this map of the north Pacific, which he presented to a public assembly of the French Academy of Sciences in 1750.

TOOLEY: French Mapping of America (MCC 33), Item 103.
Stock ID : 18579