Mémoires et Observations Géographiques et Critiques sur la Situation des Pays Septentrionaux de l'Asie et del'Amérique d'après les relations les plus récentes; Auxquelles on a joint un Essai sur la route aux Indes par le Nord, & sur un Commerce très vaste & très riche a établir dans la mer du Sud

Lausanne: Antione Chapin, 1765. First Edition. Fine. Quarto, 10 x 8 inches (254 x 203 mm); pp. xxii, 268, 8; two copper engraved folding maps by I.A. Chovin are "Carte de la partie Septentrionale et Occidentale de l'Amerique " and "Carte de la partie Septentrionale et Orientale de l'Asie " with four insets of North American regions including California, both in fine condition; contemporary tree calf (dry, scuffed), marbled end papers, extra gilt spine. Bookplate of James Strohn Copley. Contents including the two folding maps are Fine. A very important book in the history of cartography, as it shows California not as an island but a peninsula. The map of North America, with its intricate network of rivers, was the model for Diderot's map of North America for his Encyclopedia, which was issued in 1770 and after and is one of the most recognizable maps of the North America from the latter part of the 18th Century.
"A valuable part of Engel's present work is his rejection of the persistent belief held my many of his contemporary geographers and cartographers that California was an island. He unequivocally asserted (see pp. 176ff) that (in translation) 'California in not an island but a peninsula.' " [Lada-Mocarski 18]
[Cowan 78] [Howes E 149]

Part of the James S. Copley Library Collection, Copley Press Inc.  

JAMES S. COPLEY was one of the foremost collectors of Americana. Editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune and CEO of its large newspaper publishing group he became, along with his wife, an avid collector of documents pertaining to American heritage and built a vast library with the help of curator Richard Reilly, who said that Mr. Copley wanted, "Not only documents relating to important events in American history, but those portraying some sentiment or giving some feeling for people who made the history. He wanted every item to represent dramatic, humorous, romantic, passionate, or tragic events in the lives of real people unconsciously caught in the weave of American history.".