Thevenot's Tasman map is a cornerstone map of the mapping of Australia. It is one of the first to show parts of the Australian coastline in detail, based on Tasman's 1644 voyage. It shows part of the coast of New Guinea, Tasmania, and much of the east coast of Australia, and is a basic work of Australian cartography. This first state has no rhumblines.

The map shows 'Hollandia Nova, detecta 1644', consigned to the western side of the continent. A vast, undescribed expanse between New Guinea, New Zealand and Van Diemen's Land is given the French appellation 'Terre Australe, découverte l'an 1644'. Thévenot divided the continent into two at longitude 135°E. The line separating 'Hollandia Nova' and 'Terre Australe' correlated to the western limit of Spanish claims in the South Pacific arising from the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. Thévenot was essentially reusing the Spanish boundary to open up the land east of New Holland to French interests. In effect, he was signalling what many in the French administration were then advocating: that France should emulate the Dutch in ensuring that the fledgling French East India Company had access to foreign markets.

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, during which 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.