Nouvelle Guinee et Carpentarie / Des Terres Australes. Figure CVIII. 247

Title

Nouvelle Guinee et Carpentarie / Des Terres Australes. Figure CVIII. 247

Description

Map shows New Guinea and a title cartouche.

ca. 1750

Artist

Mallet (1630-1706)

Alain Manesson Mallet (1630- 1706 ) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes. His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.

Historical Description

The Portuguese Jorge de Meneses, who explored the north coast and offshore islands in 1526/27, is considered the island's European explorer. In 1545 the Spaniard Íñigo Ortiz de Retez landed and named the island "New Guinea" because the coast reminded him of that of the African Guinea, which he had previously passed. In 1623 Jan Carstenszoon mapped large parts of the coast on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. Since then, the Dutch East India Company has maintained business and political contacts with the region and the Sultanate of Tidore.