Mapping a Continent

Cover: Mapping a Continent [thumbnail] Last week, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec announced the English-language publication of a book that highlights the cartographic collections of that institution. Mapping a Continent: Historical Atlas of North America, 1492-1814, coauthored by BANQ map librarian Jean-François Palomino and historians Raymonde Litalien and Denis Vaugeois, is a translation of La mesure d’un continent, published earlier this year. From the press release:

Featuring about 40 chapters on subjects as varied as Amerindian cartography, Acadia, North American place names, the Northwest Passage, the hydrography of the St. Lawrence, and England’s conquest of Canada, Mapping a Continent is superbly illustrated with some 200 old maps and prints, taken for the most part from BAnQ’s collections but also from several other famous collections from Canada, the United States and Europe.
The atlas has notably benefited from the participation of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which holds some of the most beautiful cartographic treasures of New France. At once a reference work and a collector’s item, Mapping a Continent also includes very useful indexes on place names and the aboriginal presence in North America.

More at Kartentisch and Map the Universe.

More information about the BANQ’s map collection is available on their web site.

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