Early Edward Luther Stevenson Reproduction.

Detailed heliotype (?) reproduction of a lesser-known but extremely important early manuscript map of the world drawn by Nicolas Desliens at Dieppe in 1541.

Desliens's 1541 map predates the other Dieppe School planispheres that are more widely reproduced and known today (such as the Desliens map of 1546), but it is arguably more important than all those that followed.

Desliens's rendering of the Canadian coast (particularly the areas covered by Jacques Cartier's second and third voyages), as well as the rendering of Java la grande, were cutting edge. The mapping of Java le grande is an important piece of evidence that Australia was discovered before 1606. This map is among the earliest, if not the earliest, Dieppe school manuscript map to show Java le grande as such.

This reproduction is from the collection of the famed early map scholar Edward Luther Stevenson.

The Edward Luther Stevenson Collection

Edward Luther Stevenson was among the most important scholars of early cartography active at the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. He was responsible for numerous cartobibliographic books, including the first translation of Ptolemy to English, as well as a series of impressive facsimile maps produced while he was at the Hispanic Society of New York. Dr. Stevenson viewed facsimiles as integral to the study of early cartography, and he committed himself to building an unparalleled collection of photographs of early maps and globes. Much of his collection was donated to Yale University after his death (click on the title link above for about that), but the present item comes from a large collection of photos, manuscripts, and related material that were part of Stevenson's library, but were not donated to Yale. It is truly an impressive collection and many of the items, though reproductions, have serious antiquarian merit. As Alexander O. Vietor said about Stevenson collection that went to Yale "this is the stuff of which great libraries are made."