Map of the World 1720 | Vintage French Wall Art Print

ABOUT THE ART One of the most influential world maps of the 18th century, restored, ready to hang with framed options, and sure to create interest and conversation. Dated 15 April 1720 in Delisle's own privilege cartouche, this is a high quality, highly detailed reproduction of the genuine first edition - commissioned for the young King Louis XV and engraved by Guillaume Delisle, First Geographer to the King. This double-hemisphere masterpiece marked France's break from decorative Dutch cartography toward scientific, exploration-based mapmaking - and carries Delisle's own imprint from the Quay de l'Horloge, not a later Amsterdam reprint or Buache/Cook revision. More about the map On 15 April 1720, Guillaume Delisle - First Geographer to the King and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences - published what would become one of the most important world maps of the eighteenth century. Built on astronomical observation and surveyed coastlines rather than guesswork, it represented a new, more rigorous French school of cartography. A map of its time - and its limits California appears correctly as a peninsula, helping retire the long-running "Island of California" myth. The North American coastline simply stops near Cap Blanc - everything beyond was still unknown to European mapmakers. Australia, labelled Nouvelle Hollande, is fused with New Guinea along an unfinished coastline; New Zealand appears only in fragments, reflecting how recently Tasman's voyages had reached Europe. East of Japan, phantom lands like Juan de Gama's Land still linger - holdovers from earlier, less rigorous mapping traditions Delisle hadn't yet disproven. Charted by explorers The map traces the actual routes of Magellan (1520), Le Maire and Schouten (1615), Tasman (1642), and Halley (1700) - anchoring its geography to real, documented voyages. Calculations are referenced to the Ferro meridian (El Hierro, Canary Islands), the prime meridian favoured by French cartographers of the era. Provenance This print is a reproduction of the original version dated 15 April 1720, identifiable by Delisle's Paris imprint and dated privilege medallion in the lower cartouche- distinct from the pirated Amsterdam editions of the 1730s, the 1755 Buache update (which added Antarctic theory and early Alaska outlines), and the 1770s Cook-updated reissues.