Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica ac hydpographica tabula

This superb separately-published double-hemisphere world map by the Parisian mapmaker Nicholas Berey, combines most of the geographical outlines of Hondius’ 1617 world map and elements of the decorative border from Jean Boisseau’ map of 1636. All states of this map are rare. This is the first state of five in total, three being issued by Berey (1640, 1643 and 1649) and two further states by Jollain (1653 and 1669). A wonderful example of cartographic art, it is elaborately embellished with two celestial maps of the southern and northern skies, two showing the direction and names of the winds, one showing a perpetual calendar starting in 1637 and another showing the movements of the planets. The seas are adorned with sea monsters, galleons and mythical figures. In the Western Hemisphere, Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, can be seen riding a hippocamp in the Pacific Ocean. The map includes three decorative cartouches, one above Terra Australis Incognita, another over the Americas and a third, held by two natives, to the left of South America. The northern tip of Terra Australis Incognita is named Boach, which can be traced back to the incorrectly scribed accounts of Marco Polo’ travels, which mistakenly corrupted Polo’ mythical kingdom of Lochac to Boeach, which was then shortened to Beach. Mercator included both Lochac and Beach and in doing so, established an error that would persist in maps well into the seventeenth century. Berey has removed the western side of Terra Australis Incognita and New Guinea from the left hand side sphere. References: Shirley 354, ill.pl.270.