Nolin 1767

Photograph

Le globe terrestre représenté en deux plans-hémisphères : dressé sur la projection de Mr. de la Hyre de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, et sur plusieurs routiers et mémoires des plus habiles pilotes et savans voyageurs le tout rectifié et calculé selon les dernières observations, et dédié à Mgr. l'Abbé Bignon, conseiller d'état ordinaire. Paris : se vend présentement .. chez Crépy, 1767. G. F. Parkman Fund

Nolin’s world map offers much more than a compilation of recent discoveries and observations of “habiles pilotes et savans voyageurs.” It presents that map in the context of a biblical narrative stretching back to the beginnings of the universe. The margins beyond the double hemispheres portray the six days of creations (before God took a day a rest), with the personified four seasons at the base of the hemispheres assisting the precession of the equinoxes. The outer margins take up the story with further episodes from the Book of Genesis—the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the progeny of Seth and Cain, the death of Adam at the age of 930, and Noah’s Ark. The narrative panels conclude with the giving of thanks after the Ark settled atop Mount Ararat (prominently featured on the map southwest of the Black Sea).