Antique map of Australia and New Guinea, engraved by Bowen after Thevenot 1744
Melchisedech Thévenot (1620-1692)
Melchisedech Thévenot was a French diplomat, scientist, and travel writer. He was a scholar with interests in mathematics, physics, and medicine, acting as the patron of several early scientific societies and contributing to the formation of the Académie des Sciences. His early career included two missions to Italy in the 1640s and 1650s, and it was there that he first developed an interest in the study of Oriental languages. In 1663, he published the first part of “Relations de Divers Voyages”, a work that would secure his reputation as one of the essential travel compilers of the seventeenth century. He would publish a second and third part in 1666, a fourth in 1672, and a final fifth part was being assembled in 1692 when Thévenot died.
A Complete Map of the Southern Continent. Survey'd by Capt. Abel Tasman & Depicted by Order of the East India Company in Holland in the Stadt House at Amsterdam
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Category: Antique maps > Australia
Antique map of Australia and New Guinea, engraved by Bowen after Thevenot (1663).
The first English map of the region and one of the earliest available maps of Australia. The map is a close copy of Thevenot's map which was quite important in spreading what knowledge there was of the continent before Cook. It shows information from the explorations of Tasman, but does not show his route. Coastal details are fairly accurate, with gaps left where ships had not been. While it appears that Australia and New Guinea are connected, Bowen left a gap to allow for the possibility of a strait between the two, a strait that in fact does exist. Bowen includes two long legends; one of these explains that only what has been actually discovered is shown, and the other describes the presumed riches of the continent.
Copper engraving
Size: 37.5 x 48.5cm (14.6 x 18.9 inches)
Verso: Blank
Condition: New upper margin, nice copy.
Condition Rating: A
References: Tooley, Australia, p.35.
From: Harris J. Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca. London, 1744.
Melchisedech Thévenot (1620-1692)
Melchisedech Thévenot was a French diplomat, scientist, and travel writer. He was a scholar with interests in mathematics, physics, and medicine, acting as the patron of several early scientific societies and contributing to the formation of the Académie des Sciences. His early career included two missions to Italy in the 1640s and 1650s, and it was there that he first developed an interest in the study of Oriental languages. In 1663, he published the first part of “Relations de Divers Voyages”, a work that would secure his reputation as one of the essential travel compilers of the seventeenth century. He would publish a second and third part in 1666, a fourth in 1672, and a final fifth part was being assembled in 1692 when Thévenot died.