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Antique maps > america > north america > Antique map of Florida & Cuba by de Bry - Le Moyne

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Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens & Exactissima Descriptio Auctore Iacobo Le Moyne cui Cognomen de Morgues, qui Laudonierum ... - de Bry - Le Moyne, 1591.

Map of Florida & Cuba, oriented to the North

Copper engraving
Size: 37 x 46cm (14.4 x 17.9 inches)
Verso: Blank
Condition: Backed with paper at an early time, right and bottom margins + small part of left margin trimmed to neatline as issued, good copy.
References: Burden 79, Cumming, 14.

From: Le Moyne de Morgues Jacques. Brevis Narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae Provincia Gallis acciderant. Frankfurt, 1591.
Le Moyne's work is Part 2 of Theodorus De Bry's Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam Occidentalem. (25 parts) Frankfurt, 1590-1634. (= Grands Voyages)

"The author of this important map, Jacques Le Moyne, was an artist who accompanied Laudonnià¨re on his ill-fated trip to Florida in 1564. He made graphic drawings of native scenes, a map of the region, and an accompanying narrative. De Bry saw Le Moyne in London in 1587 and attempted to obtain the drawings and papers. But Le Moyne, who was at the time in Ralegh's service, refused to part with them; soon after his death in 1588, however, De Bry purchased them from Le Moyne's widow and published them in 1591. The manuscript map is not extant, but it was in all probability used by John White in making the southern part of his La Virgenia Pars.
The map contains many striking details, frequently erronneous, which were incorporated in other maps for over 150 years. It was Le Moyne's misfortune to have many of his errors incorporated and even exaggerated in Mercator's map of 1606, upon which for half a century much of the subsequent cartography of the region was based.
Le Moyne's coastline is usually correct for latitude, but the shore extends too far east rather than northeast in direction. This caused a striking error in Mercator's map, with a compensating enlargement of the Virginia region; the mistake was corrected somewhat by Jansson 1641 and those who followed him.
Along the top of the map, to the north, extends the shore of a sea, probably Verrazano's Sea. It is unnamed and has no channel connecting it to the Atlantic. A similar body of water is found in Lescarbot 1611 and Seller 1649.
Along the coast are Latin names for rivers and bays, such as Gironda, Garumna, and Charenta, together with a few of the earlier Spanish names. The identification of the rivers has been attempted several times but it is doubtful whether Le Moyne had definite knowledge of the number of rivers along the coast himself. The names were given on the first voyage under Ribaut, who in his account makes some reference to their latitude and appearance. Most of the problems of toponymic identification have been solved by a recent analysis of a Spanish spy's tracing on transparent paper of a map made by Captain Nicolas Barré, Ribaut's able pilot on the 1562 voyage. Ribaut's names were eventually superseded by others when the seventeenth-century English settlers arrived; probably the only permanent coastal name first found on Le Moyne's map is "Portus Regalis" or Port Royal. ... " (Cumming)
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Item number: 19287
(P.O.R.)

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