America - Philip Cluver 1683

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• Title - America
• Cartographer - Philip Cluver
• Date - 1683
• Size - 260mm x 210mm
  
• Condition - Excellent

Attractive Map of The Americas by Cluver

This is an attractive map on North and South America by Philip Cluver(Cluverius).  Apart from the wonderful design, excellent hand colouring and attractive decorative cartouche with cherub etc., this map is notable as one which presents California as an island rather than a peninsula. 

Island Of California 

The Island of California refers to a long-held European misconception, dating from the 16th century, that California was not part of mainland North America but rather a large island separated from the continent by the Gulf of California.

One of the most famous cartographic errors in history, it was propagated on many maps during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despite contradictory evidence from various explorers. The legend was initially infused with the idea that California was a terrestrial paradise, like the Garden of Eden or Atlantis.

These errors persisted for over 100 years, even after Father Kino established its penisularity about 1705. Beginning with Delisle’s map of America in 1722, some cartographers began again to show a peninsular California, but many cartographers continued to depict it as an island. Finally in 1747, Ferdinand VII of Spain issued a royal edict declaring California as part of the mainland, and soon after that insular California finally disappeared from the map. 

Surviving maps which depict California as an Island are highly collectable. This is a charming example of an early map with an insular California. 

Charming Collectable Map. 

Item ID: 15397-24

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