Originally engraved in 1700 from designs by Jean Baptiste Nolin, the map copies elements taken without permission from a manuscript map by Guillaume de L'Isle (who was to obtain an injunction allowing him to destroy Nolin's plates and burn any printed copies he could find). It was to de L'Isle  that Nolin owed 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 both the existence and potential 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 probably entirely mythical voyages of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he was widely believed, at least in France, to be the French navigator who was the true discoverer of the ‘Terra Australis’.

Also reflecting the considerable geographical confusion of the period, a note alongside that relating 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 in 1570 Ortelius has the “Psitacatorum Regio” in the same area.

 (1657–1725) was one of the few profitable map sellers of his era. Although he published little original work, his personal and business relationships with some of the leading cartographers of the day, including Vincenzo Coronelli, Jean-Dominique Cassini, and Jean Nicolas du Trallage, gave him direct access to the most cutting-edge cartography in production.

Nolin combined the decorative flair typically found on Italian maps with the geographical accuracy of the French school of cartography and an exaggerated degree of self-promotion, describing himself as ‘Engraver to the King’ and ‘Geographer to the Duke of Orleans’, despite holding neither title. In 1705, he was sued by Guillaume de L'Isle for copyright infringement, which cost him scientific credibility, if not commercial popularity. After his death, his son, also named Jean Baptiste Nolin, inherited his father's copperplates and republished many of his maps throughout the eighteenth century, working from the same premises in Paris.

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. 

Nolin was the leading French cartographer of the late seventeenth century with privileged access to official French geographical sources. Nolin's wall maps of the world and the continents are all exceedingly rare and 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.

The note on the mythical voyages of Binot Paulmier de Gonneville 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’.

De Gonneville's tale was first mentioned only one hundred and sixty years after it allegedly took place, in 1663, when Jean Paulmier de Courtonne, Canon of the Church of Saint-Pierre at Lisieux, a purported descendant of de Gonneville's, published a book called ‘Memoirs Concerning the Establishment of a Christian Mission in the Austral Land’ in which he claimed to be the great-grandson of an Indian brought back to France by de Gonneville in 1505.

De Courtonne's claims struck a chord at a time when French patriotism was offended at the success of the Dutch and the English in making new discoveries in the South Pacific. De Gonneville's tales were fomented as the basis of a French claim over these new lands. 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.

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.

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

Nolin's Large-Scale Wall Map