Later issue of this unusual double-hemisphere map of the world, on a polar Azimuthal projection in which the axis is tilted by 45 degrees. First issued in 1753, neither the author, nor the artist, nor the engraver is acknowledged, but the map is accompanied by a lengthy textual explanation beneath.

The unusual projection allows the author to the world neatly into a largely southern "Hemisphere Maritime" on the left, and a mostly northern terrestrial one, "Hemisphere Terrestre" on the right. This is only possible when the prime meridian is through Paris. The text, which is normally printed beneath the map elaborates, on both themes, at length. The net result is that the lefthand, or maritime, hemisphere includes only the landmasses of Australia (after Tasman), Southeast Asia, and the tip of South America; everything else appears in the… terrestrial hemisphere.

The cartography of the map is most recently informed by the work of Joseph-Nicolas De L'Isle in Russia, and the reports of the voyage of Bouvet de Lozier (1738-9), but retains some interesting myths: the "Mar de L'Ouest" in the Pacific northwest; and a large "I. Nouvelle" near Kamchatka.

The mapmaker
Nothing much is known about Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger (1722-1759), except what Denis Diderot, for whose great 'Encyclopedie' he compiled entries, tells us: "His features were hardly good-looking; his flat head, more wide than long, his wide mouth, his short, squashed nose, the bottom of his narrow, protruding chin, gave him a resemblance to Socrates... which strikes me still. He was lean and his skinny legs made him appear taller than he actually was… I have scarcely met anyone who could retire into himself more suddenly when some new idea struck him...; the change which then took place in his eyes was so pronounced that one would have thought his soul was deserting him to hide in a recess of his brain".