Carte Des Nouvelles Decouvertes dresseee par Phil. Buache

An amusingly outdated map of the North Pacific and adjacent landmasses in America and Asia.

This fascinating map, reissued around 1770 in Robert de Vaugondy’s geographic supplement to the monumental (and highly influential) Encyclopédie, represents one of the most controversial chapters in the history of cartography. Originally presented to the Académie des Sciences in 1750 by Philippe Buache -the son-in-law and successor to the great Guillaume Delisle – this plate illustrates the “New Discoveries” in the North Pacific, a region that remained one of the last great geographical enigmas of the 18th century.

The upper map presents a ‘scientific’ European perspective of the region, featuring the tracks of numerous explorers used to reinforce the validity of its contents. Despite this empirical veneer, the image depicts several spurious features that look absurd to the modern eye, most notably the massive, mythical Sea of the West and the ‘Company’s Land’ north of Japan. In a striking contrast, the lower portion provides an interpretation of a Japanese manuscript allegedly sourced from the Imperial Palace.

This map was originally copied by Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and later reached Sir Hans Sloane, President of the Royal Society in London. The resulting juxtaposition offers a rare 18th-century look at how differing cultural perceptions attempted to solve the mysteries of the unknown Pacific Northwest.