Amerique Meridionale by Bonne, 1788

Amerique Meridionale by Rigobert Bonne, 1788.

South America is located in the Western Hemisphere and all but a portion of it lies in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the fourth largest continent on Earth, but due to its triangular shape has the short coastline for a land mass of its size. It is one of the most bio-diverse continents containing a vast number of the planet's species. South America contains the longest continental mountain range, the Andes, and the largest rainforest, the Amazon, along with the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert. It is comprised of twelve independent nations and French Guiana. 

Rigobert Bonne (1727-1795) was one of the most influential cartographers of the eighteenth century. In 1773 he succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 - 1772) as Royal Cartographer to France. During his time as Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine, he compiled some of the detailed and accurate  maps of the time. His work showed a move away from the decorative maps of the previous century in favor of a more detail oriented and practical aesthetic. Bonne maps usually eliminated decorative compass roses and cartouches. His maps are highly regarded for their detail, historical importance, and clean appearance. 

The latitude and longitude lines in this map are drawn with a curve indicating three dimensionality. Another interesting aspect of the map is the way longitude is measured. While still being calculated in degrees it does not use the Prime Meridian, as we think of it today, as the baseline. Instead this map measures longitude from the Paris meridian along the bottom, and from the Island of El Hierro across the top. El Hierro is the farthest west of the Canary Islands and in 1634 France decided it should be used as the zero degree reference point on maps. This stemmed from Ptolemy's belief in the second century that the prime meridian was located on the westernmost point of the known world. Since the discovery of the America's the Canary Islands were considered the Western edge of the "Old World." El Hierro was believed to be twenty degrees west of Paris, so French maps often included both scales.