1700 Paolo Petrini Map of North America

This is the rare, 1700 first state of Paolo Petrini's map of North America, produced by the Neopolitan map publisher for inclusion in his Atlante Partenopeo. It presents North America, including the Maritimes, the West Indies, and Central America. The work derived from the authoritative cartography of the French mapmaker Nicolas Sanson, whose 1669 map of North America provided the basis for this Italian edition.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces North America from Baffin Bay and Greenland, south to include Central America, the West Indies, and parts of the Spanish Main. It similarly extends from California eastwards to the Azores and the British Isles.

The Map: California as an Island

The map presents a striking rendering of California as an Island - a theory of which Sanson was a major proponent. Although the notion first appears in texts in the early 16th century, the first maps showing California as an island emerged in England and the Netherlands in the 1620s. Sanson's influential adoption of convention entrenched the idea of Insular California for the remainder of the 17th century. Shortly after this map was issued, Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit missionary, traveled overland from Mexico to California, proving conclusively the peninsularity of California - in spite of this, maps exhibiting this island continued to appear in print well into the 18th century.

New Mexico

East of the sea separating California from the mainland lies Nuovo Messico. Santa Fe is shown on the west bank of the Rio Norte, which is a conflation of the Rio Grande with the Colorado - the river is shown running from Santa Fe to the southwest rather than to the Gulf of Mexico. The river has its source in a gigantic (and imaginary) lake, appearing amidst the lands of the Apaches de Navaio and the Apaches de Xila. This lake may result from reports of the Great Salt Lake associated with the Onate and Coronado expeditions.

Cities of Gold

In addition to Santa Fe, New Mexico is shown to contain the land of Quivira. Quivira, along with Cibola, was a supposed treasure city hidden in the then-unexplored American West. Other tantalizing features appear: for example, near the sea separating California from the mainland is Lago do Oro, literally a 'Lake of Gold.'

Canada and The Great Lakes

Sanson's geography of the northeastern portions of North America was authoritative and, for its day, accurate. Hudson's Bay appears in nearly recognizable form, albeit with imaginary openings to the west, suggestive of hoped-for connections with the Pacific. Sanson's mapping of the Great Lakes was the first to show all five lakes in recognizable form, although lakes Superior and Michigan are shown with their western reaches left unfinished, again suggesting the possibility of a navigable water route to the Pacific.

Colonial America

Although the Northeast is dominated by 'Canada ou Nouvelle France,' the claims of France's European rivals are grudgingly acknowledged. Nouvelle Angleterre (New England), Nouveau Pays Bas (New Netherland / New York), and Nouvelle Suede (New Sweden / New Jersey) are shown - though squeezed down to the coastline, with the place names relegated to the ocean. Virginia is also named.

The American Southeast

In Spanish Florida, which extends north to include most of the American Southeast, Lake Apalache, or the 'Great Freshwater Lake of the American Southeast' is noted. This lake, first mapped by De Bry and Le Moyne in the mid-16th-century, is a mis-mapping of Florida's Lake George. While De Bry correctly mapped the lake as part of the River May or St. John's River, cartographers in Europe erroneously associated it with the Savannah River, which, instead of flowing from the south to the Atlantic (as does the May), flowed almost directly from the northwest. Lake Apalache was subsequently relocated somewhere in Carolina or Georgia, where Sanson mapped it and where it would remain for hundreds of years.

Petrini's Source

The Neapolitan mapmaker's source is derived from the 1669 Sanson via Giacomo de Rossi, who produced an Italian edition of the Sanson in 1677. Its composition is close enough to support Burden in the idea that the 1677 map represented an intermediary between this and the 1669 source. Rossi's copy, it must be said, is quite close to the Sanson original. Moreover, Petrini's translation is identical to Rossi's, suggesting the opposite that Petrini based the map directly on the Sanson.

1775?

The engraved medallion atop the cartouche, empty in all three known states, here has had the date '1775' added in manuscript. The hand is old, and the ink has oxidized deeply, indicating age. The date tantalizingly references the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), but we can scarcely guess the purpose behind so dating a map whose information, by that time, was out of date by a century.

Publication History and Census

The French-born engraver Antoine Donzel executed this map for inclusion in Petrini's Atlante Partenopeo. It was dated 1700. Burden identifies two subsequent states: one with the imprint removed and another with the imprint present but with a date of 1766. The present example conforms to the 1700 first state. We see two examples of the 1700 state cataloged in institutional collections and five of the 1766. The map is extremely rare on the market.