Carte des Parties Nord et Est de l'Asie qui Comprend les C™tes de la Russie Asiatique le Kamschatka

Striking and highly detailed interesting 1772 Robert de Vaugondy copper engraved map featuring the Northeast Passage, the northeast coasts of Asia, and the American Northwest. The Northeast Passage, much like America's Northwest Passage, was a long sought after sea route through the Arctic that would save European merchantman the expense of rounding Africa in order to access the trade riches of East Asia. This map deals primarily with Asiatic Russia, detailing the Northeast Passage from Norway and Iceland westward as far as Alaska (Anian), Kamchatka, Hokkaido (Yesso), and Japan. Knowledge of this area was, at the time, speculative at best and this is reflected here in the depictions of many unknown islands, misshapen representations of Kamchatka, Japan, Hokkaido (Yesso), and Alaska. Notes Peking (Beijing), Nanking (Nanjing), Corea (Korea), Jedo (Tokyo), and Nangasaki (Nagasaki).

Inset Maps

The four inset maps of America depicted in the lower left are of special interest. All four loosely reference Wytfliet's seminal 1597 atlas. The upper left inset (I), depicts the northwest coast of America from the Bay of California to a conjectural Alaska, a misshapen Japan, and a mysterious 'I. de Plata' (Island of Silver). Depicts the mythical city of Quivira on the Alaskan coast. This map was based upon the California sheet of Wytfliet's atlas. Inset (II), also drawn from the Wytfliet California, shows the Bay of California and Nova Granada. Plate (III) depicts the Conibas-Zubgara region. This region, which appeared first in Mercator's 1569 atlas, has been loosely interpreted, as either as the Northwest Passage, the Hudson Bay, or the first map of the Great Lakes. Plate IV shows what is almost certainly Alaska, labeled Anian Regnum.

Anian

Here is a real cartographic curiosity, where myth becomes fact, which again becomes myth. Anian is a term used in John Donne poem, 'Anyan if I go west by the North-West passage.' In was interpreted as a kid of Bering Strait by some early cartographers, successfully transitioning it from the realms of poetry to cartography. Anian presupposed the existence of a Northwest Passage and, as such, was entirely mythical, despite any resemblance to modern-day Alaska.