Royaume du japon designé par le pere ph: Briet. de la compagnie de Iesus. sur les memoires des peres de la mesme compagnie.: Produced for an unfinished atlas, with a rare proof state

Paris,: Chez Pierre Mariette, rue S.t Iacques a l'Esperance,, [1658].. 457 by 572mm. (18 by 22.5 inches).. Hand-coloured engraved map. The second state of the plate, published separately, and extensively corrected with the addition of: the four cardinal points added midway along the graticule scale around the map; 'ou Saycock a io [10] Roy.mes' and'ou Tokoesi a 4. R.'; and additional titles for the 'kingdoms' throughout the map. Hubbard points out that this is "an enormous number of corrections for the engraver, Somer, to make", although many other errors remain. Briet (1601-1668) came from the same town, Abbeville, as Nicolas Sanson (I), and examples of this map have been found in composite atlases largely made up of maps by Sanson. Sanson and Mariette, who published this map, also had a business relationship that eventually ended badly. The engraver, Jan van Somer, worked for Sanson in Paris. A Jesuit from 1619, Briet was also a teacher of humanities and rhetoric. He wrote literature, as well as history and historical geography. He published his 'Paralella Geographica' in 1648 and 1649, with 144 maps of Europe. He had intended further volumes of maps of the other continents, but only managed a manuscript for the Asia volume, which was never published. Many of the maps from the original work were republished in his 'Theatre Geographique de L'Europe', and 'Theatrum Geographicum Europae Veteris', in 1653. Hubbard 31.2.