L’Amerique Meridionale Divisee en ses Princi…

Rare, large and influential c.17th hand coloured French engraved map of South America, published by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot and based on the geographical framework established by Nicolas Sanson (1600–1667), the leading figure of the French school of scientific cartography.

Jaillot, who acquired the Sanson plates through family and commercial association with Sanson’s heirs, re-engraved and reissued many of Sanson’s maps in enlarged and more elaborate formats during the later seventeenth century, aligning geographic authority with the decorative grandeur favoured in the Paris map trade under Louis XIV.

The continent is organised according to the principal colonial and geographical divisions recognised by Europeans in the later seventeenth century, including Terre Ferme (the Spanish Main of northern South America), Perou, Chili, and Bresil. The hydrographic system is prominently articulated, with the Amazon and La Plata river networks forming major structuring elements of the interior, while the Andes are shown as a continuous western cordillera. Coastal nomenclature is comparatively dense, reflecting maritime exploration and imperial priorities, whereas the interior retains large schematic regions, signalling both emerging knowledge and persistent uncertainty.

The map exemplifies the transition from the decorative Dutch style of the earlier seventeenth century to the more measured, text-driven French cartographic aesthetic. Although ornament remains important, it is subordinated to geographic clarity. The title cartouche and other embellishments display controlled Baroque design rather than pictorial excess, reinforcing the authority of the map as an instrument of knowledge as well as display. Jaillot’s engraving is crisp and spacious, with balanced lettering and a clear hierarchical structure that reflects the intellectual ambitions of the Sanson–Jaillot partnership: to ground cartography in compiled reports, travellers’ accounts, and state geographical intelligence.

Historically, the map belongs to a period of intensified European competition in the Americas, when cartography functioned not only as a scientific pursuit but also as a visual expression of imperial reach. French geographic production, though representing territories largely controlled by Spain and Portugal in South America, asserted intellectual leadership in the ordering and presentation of global space. As such, this map is both a synthesis of mid c.17th geographic knowledge and a statement of the maturity of the French cartographic school.