Australia (General)

These rare early maps of Australia as a continent illustrate how European cartographers gradually defined the southern landmass. Examples by Willem Blaeu, Joan Blaeu, Nicolas Sanson, Guillaume Delisle, Emanuel Bowen, John Speed, Freycinet, Flinders, Coronelli, Cassini, Zatta and Arrowsmith show the changing outlines of “Terra Australis” as Dutch, French, and British discoveries filled in the coastline.

Such antique maps are prized for their depiction of speculative interiors, misidentified coasts, and evolving place names, representing the earliest European attempts to understand Australia’s true geography.