Auction Name: 2026 February 26 Historical Manuscripts & Texana Signature® Auction

Lot Number: 47034

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/6328*47034

Nicholas Sanson d'Abbeville. Le Nouveau Mexique, et La Floride. Paris: Pierre Mariette, 1656. 22 x 13 inches (sight), matted and framed to an overall size of 30 3/4 x 21 1/2 inches. Hand-colored in outline. An excellent example of one the most important maps from the "Father of French Cartography." It was the first to depict what is now the American Southwest, showing Florida, the greater Texas region, and New Mexico. With California drawn as an island off the West Coast. This map is credited with popularizing that misconception, an error that endured well into the eighteenth century, largely due to Sanson's prestige. With this map, Sanson was also the first to show Santa Fe as the capital of New Mexico.

Martin & Martin write that, despite the map's various errors, "it has served as a summary of the best information available for the greater Texas region during the middle of the seventeenth century...the map has continued to be studied as an extraordinary document of the cultural and geographical resources known in the centers of learning in Europe, and it served as an important beginning in the great strides made by French scientists in the eighteenth century."

Condition: Not examined out of frame. Lightly toned with a single smoothed fold at center. A few very light, scattered stains.

Reference: Martin & Martin 10.

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