Title: Carte des parties Nord et Est de L'Asie qui comprend Les Costes De Russie Asiatique Le Kamschatka, Le Iesso et Les Isles Japon…[insets of Alaska, West, AZ and Conibas]
Map Maker: Denis Diderot / Didier Robert De Vaugondy
Place / Date: Paris / 1772
Description:
Marvelous depiction of the Northeast Passage, from Norway and Spitsberg Island to the Straits of Anian and Cape Schalaginskoy north of Kamschatka, covering the NE Coast of Asia to south of Japan and Korea.
The primary focus of the map is Asiatic Russia, but the 4 insets of are particular note, being derived by De Vaugondy primarily from the maps of Wytfliet, published in his seminal American Atlas in 1597. Depicted are Anian Regnum (the first, although completely conjectural, separate depiction of what is loosely Alaska and the Canadian Northwest), the Conibas region, which essentially shows the NW Passage and has loosely been described as the first map of the Great Lakes Region, an interesting cross section of Wytfliet's California map focusing on the region from the Gulf of California North to the mythical headwaters of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, and a fictional amalgam of the California Coastline from the same map, with an odd Japan and I de Plata added west of the region covered by Wytfliet.
A fascinating group from Diderot's 10 map supplement to his Encylopedia, one of the earliest examples of contemporary comparative cartography which is obtainable by collectors.
