L'Isle's influence can be seen in the inclusion of the ‘Mer de l'Oeust’, in the American northwest, for the first time on a printed map. Above this Nolin placed a tentative Strait of Anian running into the Hudson Bay, thereby replacing the misconception of the ‘Island’ of California with two more major errors.

On the other side of the Pacific, Nolin drew a conjectural coastline joining Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania into one vast landmass. Nolin was convinced of the existence of the great ‘Terres Australes et Inconnues’ to which he tentatively attached New Zealand.

A fascinating note on the southern continent below the Cape of Good Hope refers to the mythical voyages of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville (c. early sixteenth-century). The note reads: ‘Binot Paulmier, Sr. de Gonneville, discovered this land in 1503, he met the son of King Arosca, called Essomeric who ruled along this coast which he called the Southern Indies, he made considerable commerce and found the inhabitants extremely friendly’. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Paulmier was widely believed, at least in France, to be the French navigator who was the true discoverer of the ‘Terra Australis’. This tale fomented the basis of a French claim over these new lands, and this belief grew in the eighteenth century and led to French expeditions such as those of Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, and Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec.

Another note that relates to Paulmier refers to the region as ‘Terre des Perroquets’ (‘the Land of Parrots’). This regional designation, perhaps derived from a misplaced report of Brazil, dates back to the earliest depictions of the Great Southern Continent, and Ortelius's atlas from 1570 shows the 'Psitacatorum Regio' in the same area.

Engraved copperplate double-hemisphere wall-map of the world, on four joined sheets, surrounded by separately engraved borders. On linen, with contemporary hand-colour in full.

Jean Baptiste Nolin’s map is an especially fine example of the iconic wall maps that were displayed in the salons of leading merchants and noblemen in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Europe. Large, highly decorative, and expensive productions, they were considered to be the ultimate signs of opulence and intellectual sophistication, even appearing in works of fine art such as the paintings of Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675).

Nolin's wall maps of the world are considered to be his finest achievements. The world is displayed in double hemispheres amidst a pageant of Baroque allegory. Four atlas figures, representing the four seasons, lift the earthly hemispheres into the heavens. In the space below the intersection of the hemispheres, is an allegorical depiction of the Ptolemaic conception of the universe, while above the radiant sun at the centre of the Copernican system appears in finely engraved splendour. The panel above the map contains roundels depicting seminal Biblical scenes located on either side of the fine title cartouche.

Nolin was the leading French cartographer of the late seventeenth century with privileged access to official French geographical sources. Yet, this map copies elements taken without permission from a manuscript map by Guillaume de L'Isle. L'Isle sued Nolin for copyright infringement, which cost him scientific credibility. L'Isle obtained an injunction that allowed him to destroy Nolin's plates and burn any printed copies he could find. Nolin's wall maps are thus exceedingly rare.

A magnificent example of what Shirley describes as 'one of the finest large-scale world maps to be produced and ... a fitting bridge between the geographical and artistic skills of the seventeenth century and the century to come'. It is as important for its geographical information as for its decorative beauty.

Nolin's Large-Scale Wall Map