National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 56 | April 2002


Jean Baptiste Nolin’s Rare 1700 Wall Map

Le globe terrestre represente en deux plans-hemispheres dresse sur les dernieres observations ... by Jean Baptist Nolin
[Detail] Jean Baptiste Nolin (1648–1708)
Le globe terrestre represente en deux plans-hemispheres dresse sur les dernieres observations ... Paris: Chez l'auteur sur le quay ... 1700
2 hemispheres each 60.6 cm in diameter, on sheet 120.5 x 153.7 cm

Magnificent both in size and in the fine detail of its etching, the recently acquired 1700 world wall map by the important French cartographer, Jean Baptiste Nolin is a major and significant acquisition for the National Library of Australia.

Titled Le globe terrestre represente en deux plan-hemispheres dresse sur les dernieres observations … the map, measuring 149 x 119 cms, is engraved on four joined sheets and comprises twin hemispheres supported by two mythological figures. Surrounding the hemispheres in finely executed etching by the painter Nicolas Bocquet are scenes depicting the creation of the world and the cosmos which are surrounded again in a border panel by 16 vignettes of scenes from biblical history. Text panels on the history and geography of the ancient and modern worlds, at the base complete the map.

Nolin’s map was produced at the junction of the decline in importance of the Dutch dominance of world exploration and cartography and the emergence of British and French exploration and cartography. The map consequently provides a fitting bridge between the two eras.

Apart from its size and the quality of the etching, the map is also significant for its geographical information regarding the Australian and American continents. Seventy years prior to the charting of the east coast of Australia by the British explorer James Cook a conjectural eastern coastline extends from New Guinea to Tasmania, the latter partly extended on its western coastline. This is the first evidence of an eastern Australian coastline on a printed world map.

An extraordinary Mer de l’ouest penetrates the middle of the west coast of North America and extends to the centre of the continent while the Pacific Ocean appears to be channelled through to Hudson’s Bay. The origin of this wonderful piece of imaginative geography is unknown although it gained popularity in the publication of Baron de Lahontan’s Nouveaux Voyages published in 1703.

Significant voyages of discovery including Mendana, le Maire, and Chaumont along with both of Tasman’s voyages are also depicted. Many of the earlier Dutch discoveries along Australia’s western, northern and southern coastlines are also shown.

Only two other full copies of this edition of the map are known, one in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the other, a nicely coloured copy, in the Lousiana State Museum. Various other states of the map, 1708 and 1740 are also known, the 1708 edition being the most widely held. The Library’s copy shows vestiges of colour in particular along the explorer’s routes and some of the decorative elements, which will hopefully shine again once current conservation treatment is completed.
—Maura O’Connor

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au