A fine double hemisphere World map from Chatelain’s monumental seven volume Atlas Historique, published in Amsterdam. It combines a wealth of information and geographical observations. The two hemispheres are divided into a grid with a corresponding key to the tables surrounding the map, which identifies the locations of principal cities, mountains, rivers, lakes, islands and other geographical features. The routes of prominent explorers are shown with the dates of their voyages. North America is still vastly unexplored with an unchartered western coastline. This map shows California as a peninsula. The Atlas Historique was publuished between 1705 and 1720 when the question of California’s insularity was hotly contested among leading cartographers. Australia and new Guinea are joined into one vast landmass.

About the cartographer

Henri Abraham Chatelain (1684 – 1743) was a French cartographer and the son of Zacharie Chatelain. Together with his father and brother Zacharie junior (1690-1754) they worked as a partnership based in Amsterdam, publishing the Atlas Historique, Ou Nouvelle Introduction à L’Histoire . The atlas was published in seven volumes between 1705 and 1720, with a second edition appearing in 1732.

Chatelain was a skilled artist and knew combining a wealth of historical and geographical information with delicate engraving and an uncomplicated composition. Groundbreaking for its time, this work included studies of geography, history, ethnology, heraldry, and cosmography. His maps with his elegant engraving are a superb example from the golden age of French mapmaking.