Map of South America.

Moll's map of South America from his flagship work, "The World Described" first published as a bound volume in c.1715 but issued into the late 18th century. 

Moll's maps were important both for their geography and their politics. In this case, this map of South America was also used by Moll to illustrate and advertise the prospectus for the South Sea Company, an entity given the monopoly for trade in South Sea. Ultimately it ballooned as a financial bubble which ruined most of its investors although it was overshadowed by both the Mississippi Bubble and the Scottish Bubble which were roughly contemporary. 

The map is based mainly on the readings taken by Edmund Halley during his voyage to the South Sea and the map by the English firm Mount and Page. As well as the large vignette on Potosi, this map is also famous for the long text panel in the Atlantic in which Moll lambasts his contemporaries as "ignorant Pretenders" and decries the inaccuracy of a "falsly Projected French map published in Paris in 1703." which said Pretenders published in competition to his work. 

The 1703 map referenced would have been published by Guillaume de L'Isle  and the "ignorant Pretender" is most likely John Senex who produced a large two sheet map of South America and dedicated it to Halley as per Moll's text panel. 

Original colour. [SAM2852]