Sanson’s map is one of the earliest world maps to depict the Great Lakes in North America with some accuracy, although it was not until he published his world map of 1656 that all five were named. On the present map, 'Lac Superior', and the telling 'Lac des Puans' – Lake of Evil Smells –  appears, but 'Erie' does not. California appears as an island for the second time in Sanson’s maps (preceded by its presence in his ‘Amerique Septentrionale...’ 1650). This idea was perpetuated until 1705 with the publication of Father Kino’s map that confirmed that California includes a peninsula attached to the mainland, and not an island.

Double-page engraved copperplate double-hemisphere map of the world, with contemporary hand-colour in outline.

Nicolas Sanson d'Abbeville’s first world map, issued separately, heralds the dawn of the age of the French School of 

, characterized by sparse elegance and scientific precision. Sanson’s map is one of the earliest world maps to depict the Great Lakes in North America with any accuracy, although it was not until he published his world map of 1656 that all five were named. California appears as an island for the second time in one of Sanson’s maps, perpetuating an error that would not be corrected until 1705.

Employed as the ‘Geographe du Roi’, to Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, the work of Sanson heralded the dawn of the age of the French School of 

, which is characterized by sparse elegance and scientific precision. This same aesthetic can be see in his later map of the North and South Poles. 

While this map was separately issued, Sanson did produce an atlas with Pierre Mariette, ‘Les Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde’ (1668), the first folio French-published atlas of the world.

Nicolas Sanson’s first world map, issued separately.

Sanson’s First World Map