Page 73 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript Americana - Sale 2310 - April 16, 2013

148 ● HENNEPIN, LOUIS. Beschreibung der Landschafft Louisiana. 2 folding
maps. 425 pages plus 3 final blanks. 24mo, contemporary vellum, minor wear, rear joint
repaired, original clasps intact, early stamp reading “IKPAR 1689” on front cover; faint
dampstaining and a short closed separation on first map, second map laid down skillfully on
paper and reinserted, catalogue description pasted to rear pastedown; early inscription on
title page, bookplate of Niagara Falls scholar Peter A. Porter on front pastedown, later
bookplate on front free endpaper. Nuremberg: Andres Otto, 1689 [25,000/35,000]
FIRST GERMAN EDITION of Hennepin’s 1683 Description de la Louisiane. Also includes a
German translation of Marquette’s 1673 account of the northern Mississippi. This edition is
most notable for its two important maps. The first, “Tabula Exhibens Novam Franciam et
Louisianam,” is adapted from the map in Hennepin’s 1683 first edition, the first to accurately
hypothesize the route of the Mississippi River. Here the Mississippi is depicted as “Fl
Colbert,” with the southern portion below Hennepin’s exploration marked with a dotted line.
The present map is the first to use the name “Louisiana”; the 1683 map had called it La
Louisiane. Also, this version depicts North America exclusively, while the original 1683 map
included portions of the European and South American coasts.
The second map, “Tabula Exhibens Regiones Quasdam Recens Detectas in America
Septentrionali, anno 1673,” is a second edition of the map by Joliet published in Thévenot’s
1681 travels, the first map to name Lake Michigan (here Lacus Mitchigami).
European Americana 689/94; JCB page 207; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, pages 128-130 (map
sources); Streit 2742. One copy known at auction since 1950.