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Nicolas Sanson’s “Gentleman’s Pocket Atlas”

A collector’s item, from 1700, the shop listed this atlas for $12,000. You may remember it from the show, but it’s Nicolas Sanson’s “Gentleman’s Pocket Atlas” with written descriptions of each country’s local customs back in 1700, published by Francois Halma. Actually, it shows California as an island. Sanson became one of France’s most reputable cartographers during the 17th century and many call him the ‘father’ of French cartography. This pocket atlas was Halma’s version of the Sanson atlas, reduced in size and divided into Continents; he published it in Amsterdam.

Nicolas Sanson’s “Gentleman’s Pocket Atlas”