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Visible Mending

Collected Item: “Planisphère A Dieppe par Nicolas Desliens, 1566”

Title

Planisphère A Dieppe par Nicolas Desliens, 1566

Alternative title

World Map, 1566

Genre of image

Map

Medium

Vellum/ parchment

Creator

Nicolas Desliens

Era

Early Modern

Date

1566

Region and/or country (additional to map location)

Dieppe, France

Brief description/ overview

Portolan world map synthesizing Norman hydrographic knowledge in the mid-16th century. It is "South up:" a visual that mends modern northern hemisphere bias.

Website

http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40767000m

More detail about the image

This is one of two world maps by Desliens known to exist; the other dates from 1541. La Nouvelle France occidentalle (Western New France) is written in large letters over an arc-shaped newly "discovered" North America, reflecting political bias of the time. Territories claimed by France are indicated by flags with fleurs-de-lis, in Canada (Labrador), Florida (on the May River), and Brazil (on the Rio de la Plata). Desliens is known only from his work and inscriptions on his maps indicating that he worked in Dieppe (hence the map locator) and Arques; no biographical information about him survives. (Information from Library of Congress)

Source of image

Bibliothèque nationale de France, GED-7895 (RES)

Identifier (accession number, Digital Object Identifier DOI, etc)

ark:/12148/btv1b55002609p

Provenance

Previous owner Viel-Castel

Image rights

Public Domain
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