DE FER, Nicolas (1646-1720).
Partie Meridionale de la Riviere de Missipi, et ses environs, dans l'Amerique Septentrionale. Mis au jour par N. de Fer. Geographe de sa Majeste Catolique 1718.
Engraved map.
Paris, 1718.
21 3/4" x 30 3/8" sheet, 31" x 39 1/2" framed.

Comparables: Arader Galleries, 2022 - $10,080; Swaen, 2007 - $8,512.

De Fer's 1715 map provided a revolutionary cartographic rendering of the Mississippi River, which was later adopted and popularized by De L’Isle’s 1718 Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Missisipi. It was the first to include Francoise Le Maire’s updated information along the Gulf Coast, and the first to revise and improve the mapping of the region to the west of the Great Lakes using French missionary sources.

De Fer's map was one of the earliest to show the amount of money to be made of French Louisiana– access to which would soon be given to John Law's Company of the West. (One of the first uses of a map to stimulate investment, in this case via John Law’s French “Company of the West” and the money making potential of Louisiana.)

De Fer's map was of great contemporary importance, as it was one of the first to clearly show the many new Spanish settlements of the area. This map would later be utilized by Henry Popple to delineate Spanish settlements on the Rio Grande and territory west of the Mississippi Valley.

Cummings 169C - with Bernard imprint.