Vin­cenzo Maria Coro­nelli and Jean Bap­tise Nolin. Le nou­veau Mex­ique, appelé aussi Nou­velle Grenade et Marata, avec par­tie de Cal­i­fornie selon les mem­oires les plus nou­veaux. A Paris: Chez J.B. Nolin, sur le Quay de l’Horlogeà, l’Enseigne de la Place des Vic­toires Vers le Pont-Neuf, Avec Priv­i­lege du Roy, 168 (sic).

A new acqui­si­tion for Princeton’s His­toric Maps & West­ern Amer­i­cana col­lec­tions, Coro­nelli and Nolin’s Le nou­veau Mex­ique… is described in Philip D. Burden’s The Map­ping of North Amer­ica II (Raleigh Pub­li­ca­tions, 2007) as “the most momen­tous map of the Amer­i­can south-west pub­lished to date [1687] and would remain sem­i­nal for decades to come” (Bur­den, 307).  The pri­mary impor­tance of the map is the depic­tion of the Rio Grand, which is accu­rately described as flow­ing south-east and dis­charg­ing into the Gulf of Mex­ico instead of the Gulf of Cal­i­for­nia: “La Riu du Nort tombe dans le golfe de Mex­ique, et non pas dans La Mer de Californie.”

The map also promi­nently fea­tures sev­eral Indian pueb­los, includ­ing Acoma, Nambe, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, and Taos, as well as Apache and Navajo tribes.

The first printed state of the map has a regret­ful omis­sion in the date, which is printed as “168.”

Wheat’s Map­ping the Trans­mis­sis­sippi West, 1540–1861 (Insti­tute of His­tor­i­cal Car­tog­ra­phy, 1957–1963) dates the map as 1685, while Bur­den sug­gests a later circa 1687 print­ing.  A sec­ond state of Le nou­veau de Mex­ique… did not appear until in 1742.

Select Bib­li­og­ra­phy:

Bur­den, Philip D. The Map­ping of North Amer­ica II: A List of Printed Maps 1671–1700. Rick­mansworth, Herts., U.K.: Raleigh Pub­li­ca­tions, 2007.

Wheat, Carl I. Map­ping the Trans­mis­sis­sippi West, 1540–1861. Six vol­umes. San Fran­cisco: Insti­tute of His­tor­i­cal Car­tog­ra­phy, 1957–1963.