Antarctica, Australia and Holy Ghost Land antique map. Buache, c1763.

by Buache, Philippe

Buache theoretical Chart of the Antarctic Polar Circle with the Countries adjoining, According to the New Hypothefis of M. Buache. From the Memoirs of the Royal Accademy at Paris.

Original copperplate-engraved map by Phillipe Buache (1700-1773) for Geographical and Physical Observations, including a theory of the Antarctic Regions, and the frozen Sea which they are supposed to contain, according to the Hypothesis of the celebrated M. Buache, published in London, January 1763 in the Gents. Mag. (Gentleman’s Magazine).

This wonderful map of the South Pole, names Holy Ghost Land as the eastern most point of Australia, with an uncharted hypothetical east coast stretching from Tasmania “Van Diemen's Land” in the south, to Papua New Guinea in the north - via Vanuatu (Terre du St Esprit) “Holy Ghost Land” in the east. Inside the Antarctic Polar Circle Buache are notations of De l’Isle, Drake and Halley, "Frozen Sea as supposed", "Land yet undiscovered", and hypothetical coastlines according to Ortelius and Koerius, dotted-in as "a land and ice spotted by sailors," with dates.

Buache belonged to the French school of theoretical cartography. In this map Buache combined geographic knowledge from the journals of explorers and missionaries, direct astronomical observations, and his own geographic speculations. Seven years after publication of this map James Cook charted the east coast of Australia, claimed it for Britain, and named it New South Wales. Antarctica was charted fifty years after publication of this map.

Buache was trained by the great French cartographer, Guillaume De l’Isle with whom he worked (and whose daughter he married). Buache was appointed Premier Geographe du Roi (First Geographer to the King), a position that had been created for and previously held by Guillaume de l’Isle.

This map has vertical folds that accommodated the size of the smaller publication for which it was engraved. Page measures 20.3 x 25.9 cm (8 x 10 1/4 inches), with generous margins except at top. To border measures 19.5 x 22cm.