Jean-Baptiste Nolin (1686-1762). LE GLOBE TERRESTRE/ REPRESENTÉ EN DEUX PLANS-HEMISPHERES/ Dressé/ Sur la Projection de Mr. de la Hyre de l’Academie Royale des Sciences, et/ sur plusieurs Routiers et Memoires des plus habiles Pilotes et Savans Voyageurs/ le tout rectifié et calculé selon les dernieres observations. (Paris: 1740, State 2). Published in Nolin’s Le Theatre du Monde …. Engraving with full and outline hand color on heavy paper. Impressive wall map format measuring 46 x 58 ¼ in. engraved area; 48 1/2 x 60 ½ in. total area. Ample margins. Currently, shrinkwrapped. Very good condition for this scarce map. $30,000.
$30,000.00
A Rare & Very Important World Map
This splendid Globe Terrestre by J.B. Nolin is one of the finest large-scale world maps to be produced and is a fitting bridge between the geographical and artistic skills of the seventeenth century and the century to come. The twin hemispheres and their decorative surround are engraved on four sheets with further strips comprising a broad pictorial border and, at the bottom, architectural columns of text. —Rodney Shirley
Offered here is a fantastic and colorful world map from Nolin’s Le Theatre du Monde. Wonderfully illustrated mythical figures support each hemisphere while elaborate illustrations of the Creation and vignettes depicting biblical history surround the map. The map states the artist as: “Sr. [Nicolas François] Bocquet painter invented and engraved the subjects which accompanies this planisphere, on the thoughts that Sr. Nolin communicated to him.”
It is the first printed map to depict a Mer de l’Ouest (Sea of the West), a geographic misconception of an inland sea in the Pacific Northwest, and the first printed map to delineate an eastern coast of Australia. For this rare second state, all of the continents were redrawn in greater detail. The second state was dedicated “To MGR: ABBE BIGNON ORDINARY STATE COUNCILOR.”
The present map is an especially fine example of the grand genre of wall, or parlor, maps that enjoyed an iconic place in 17th and early 18th-century Europe. Large, highly decorative and expensive productions, they were considered to be the ultimate signs of wealth and intellectual sophistication. In this vein, such wall maps appeared prominently in works of fine art, most notably the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. Displayed in the salons of leading merchants and noblemen, the maps were especially prone to damage and their survival rate is extremely low. The present map is truly exceptional, for it is preserved in remarkably fine condition.
Jean Baptiste Nolin (c.1657-1708) was the leading French cartographer of the late sixteenth-century. Fulfilling various royal commissions for Louis XIV, Nolin had privileged access to official French geographical sources. He notably maintained a close and highly lucrative association with the great Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli. Nolin’s wall maps of the World and the continents are all exceedingly rare and are considered to be his finest achievements.
Ref: Shirley, #605
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