1652 Les Isles Moluques, Celebes, Gilolo, &c.
DESCRIPTION
This is a detailed 17th-century map of the Moluccas (Spice Islands) and the surrounding regions of Southeast Asia, including Celebes (Sulawesi), Gilolo (Halmahera), Banda, Timor, and the western reaches of New Guinea.
Issued in Paris by Nicolas Sanson d’Abbeville, Geographer to the French Crown, the map reflects the emerging dominance of French scientific cartography while still drawing heavily on earlier Dutch sources. Stylistically, the map illustrates Sanson’s break from decorative excess in favor of clarity, proportion, and geographic structure, a hallmark of the French school that would influence European mapmaking for decades
During the seventeenth century, the Moluccas were the center of the global spice trade, producing cloves, nutmeg, and mace, commodities that fueled intense rivalry among European powers. Control of islands such as Ternate, Tidore, and Banda shifted repeatedly as Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and English interests competed for dominance. Sanson’s map captures this contested world at a moment when geographic knowledge was rapidly improving but still uneven, with coastlines rendered with growing confidence while interiors remain largely undefined.
CONDITION
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