Mappe-Monde ou Description du Globe Terrestre, Assujettie aux Observations Astronomiques.

A beautiful and impressive map of the world drawn by Jean Janvier in 1775. Depicts the entire world on a double hemisphere projection. North America appears with a fair approximation of accuracy though the western and northwestern regions remain either blank or entirely speculative. Alaska is entirely absent, but the Aleutian archipelago does appear in an embryonic form. By contrast the northeast parts of Asia, which had recently been explored by Vitus Bering and Tschirikow, are depicted with a fair approximation of accuracy. Both the apocryphal Terre de Gama and Terre de la Company appear just northeast of Yedso (Hokkaido). Often called de Gamma Land or Gama, these islands were supposedly discovered in the 17th century by a mysterious figure known as Jean de Gama. Various subsequent navigators claim to have seen this land, but it was left to Bering to finally debunk the myth. In 1729, he sailed for three days looking for Juan de Gama land but never found it. Thought it may be little more than a mis-mapping of Hokkaido or the Japanese Kuriles, Gama or Compagnie remained on maps for about 50 years following Bering's voyages until the explorations of Cook confirmed the Bering finding

Date

1775

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

4,000 × 2,732 pixels

Need maps for a whole project? Add Find Any Map to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 144063.