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Champlain's 'Lost' Map
A Landmark of Cartography in its Most Complete State
Great Lakes/ Canada.
CHAMPLAIN, S. DE/ DU VAL, P. [Paris, 1616/ 1677]
Le Canada faict par le Sr de Champlain,... 1677.
13 ⅝ x 21 ⅜ inches
Original outline color; excellent condition. Archivally framed.
A crucial map in an excellent example that was at the time of its original engraving in 1616 (see below) the first printed European map to show both Lakes Ontario and Huron. It thus "supplies the link in Champlain's cartography between his 1613 and 1632 maps..." — Schwartz. (Both of these maps are of extreme rarity.) Assuming a 1616 date, the map was also according to Burden the first to make use of Capt. John Smith's map of the Virginia.
Contrary to Verner's description of this 1677 issue of the map, it contains important updating, such as the addition of significant place names (Boston, Manhattan, Montreal, Quebec, and Hudson's Bay) as well as of the names of Indian tribes and notations not found on earlier issues. Also, with fine cartouches added to both the title and table of place names, this is the most decorative of all the states of the map.
It is widely accepted that the plate for the map was engraved in about 1616, since there exists an example of the map with that date at the John Carter Brown Library. This is further supported by the fact that this map includes precisely the information concerning Lakes Ontario and Huron gathered by Champlain on his expedition to these areas in 1615-1616. (This information is not found on Champlain's 1613 map.) It is believed that the present map was intended for the 1619 edition of Champlain's account of his explorations but for unknown reasons was not used. Several years later the plate resurfaced in the hands of Pierre Du Val, the son-in-law of Nicholas Sanson. Therefore, as Schwartz points out, "'concealed' in a 1653 map [is] a lost map by the great French explorer and colonial official of New France." Du Val issued impressions bearing dates of 1653, 1664, and 1677. It nevertheless has become rare on the market.
Schwartz/Ehrenberg, p. 89, pl. 47; Verner/Stubbs, The Northpart of America, pp. 31-33; Burden 188, 309. |
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