NOLIN, JEAN BAPTISTE II, A LARGE WALL MAP 'L'AMERIQUE'

A wallmap of the Americas dedicated to Louis XVI, with attractive borders that tell the story of the discovery of the continent. The cartouche for the scale bar shows armed Europeans disrupting cannibals roasting a human head on a spit. Geographically the map is cautious, California has few details, the Great lakes are slightly enlarged, the West undiscovered. First issued in 1740 by J.B. Nolin II (1686-1762), this re-issue is almost certainly by Jean Baptiste Crepy (fl 1753-1796) who worked in the same street as Nolin in Paris and acquired the copperplates after his death. The issue date of 1785, suggests that it was printed to meet the renewed French interest in the Americas after the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).