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A French edtion of Captain James Cook's famous chart of the Southern Hemisphere. The original English edition was printed in 1777 when Cook's second voyage was published. The French edition was engraved by Bernard and printed from 1778 on. The top right margin of the 1778 edition states "pl. 2" . Later versions of the map give reference to the published works of Cook's second voyage in the top left margin and refer to a publication of general voyages in the bottom right margin.

James Cook’s second voyage between 1772 and 1776 was conducted to explore and potentially disprove once and for all the existence of the fabled Terra Australis or great southern land. Interestingly, even though Cook circumnavigated Antarctica, his chart shows no existence of the continent: ice was rarely marked on a map because it was assumed it would keep on changing its shape.

The chart depicts Cook's tract during his first and second voyage and is a key piece in the Cook exploration collection.

View map online on http://www.antiquemapart.com/map/24