America Settentrionale Colle Nuove Scoperte Sin All Anno 1688. . . (together with] America meridionale . . .

Gorgeous example of Coronelli's famous four- sheet map of America. One of the best examples of California as an island. The map also includes extensive annotations on the French explorations in North America, including the explorations of Marquette in 1673 and La Salle in 1682.
The map relies heavily on Franquelin's map, including placing the mouth of the Mississippi 600 miles to the west of its true location.
The rendering of the Great Lakes is the best to that date. In the western part of the continent, Coronelli used information from a manuscript map by Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa Briceño y Berdugo, providing the best depiction of the area to date. This included the correct delineation of the "Rio Bravo" (Rio Grande) as emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, rather than the Sea of California as had been earlier thought.
California shown as an island.
The western sheet is providing a lot of new information on New Mexico and the Southwest.
The outline of South America is well charted and every port and bay has been identified and named in detail. The interior is filled with geographical detail as well as sketches of local flora and fauna, both real and imagined. The map is illustrated with numerous scenes depicting warring Native Indians and European settlers. Tierra del Fuego is left incomplete. North of the Amazon, Coronelli has included Lake Parime, a mythical lake, on the shores of which the fictional city of El Dorado is identified. The Amazon Kingdom and El Dorado were actually the last vestiges of the medieval European notions that somewhere on earth strange and wonderful places existed.

A beautiful joined and uncolored, example with a rich dark impression. The true quality of Coronelli's map can be seen in his original uncolored examples, rather than in the often offered, modern colors!

The remarkable Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718), encyclopaedist, geographer, inventor and Doctor of Theology, was citizen of the Republic of Venice. He was also one of the most prominent mapmakers and publishers in Europe of his day.

More about Coronelli.

Reference: Tooley #57. Cummings, p. 148. Wheat #70. McLaughlin #103.