America Borealis 1699

Richly engraved decorative map of North America, showing California as and Island, by Heinrich Scherer (1628-1704).

The Great Lakes are prominently depicted and the Mississippi River originates in two large lakes in present-day Canada, and empties into the "Sinus Mexicanus" too far west.
The map is decorated with a title cartouche, distance scale, ships and sea monsters.

Decorative map by Scherer for his Atlas Novus exhibens orbem terraguem per naturae opera, historiae navae acveterus monumenta, artistique geographicae leges et praecepta...published in eight volumes from 1702-1710 in Munich. Scherer, a devout Jesuit, produced this geographical compendium to depict the Catholic hierarchy and the spread of Jesuit missions throughout the world.

Copper engraving, in very good condition.