Coronelli, Vicenzo Maria.

The condition of this item is as described in the catalogue description
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A famous and finely executed map of the North Pole, extending south to the Arctic Circle.

Mapping of the north pole before the mid-seventeenth century largely depended on late-medieval myths and legends, particularly the notion of four islands at the north pole acting as funnels for a great whirlpool that drew the waters of the world to the north pole, and then sucked them into an abyss at the centre of the Earth, whence the water was forced to the surface to replenish the streams and rivers, beginning the cycle again; this feature can be seen on many of the early world maps in this sale.

As the pole was at the furthest edge of European knowledge in this period, Coronelli has struggled to reconcile the new discoveries, made in the quest for a sea-passage to the Indies over the top of the world, with existing geography, most notably the position and nature of Novaya Zemlya in Arctic Russia, explained in a lengthy section of text. His uncertainty about the north pole is both explained, and concealed, by the lengthy note engraved there, which saved him from making a definitive judgement on the geography of the pole.

However, he gives detailed notes chronicling the exploration of Arctic Canada and the emergent knowledge of Baffin and Hudson Bays.