摘要
This article aims to discuss the blank spaces in the cartography of the Enlightenment, examining one map by French mapmaker Jean Baptist Bourguignon d＇Anville, the Carte de l＇Amdrique m＆idionale, first printed in 1748. Here, emptiness reflects the limits of the geographical knowledge of that continent. Moreover, it also indicates that a mythological geography still present on the maps of the time. This was also evident in the case of Lake Parima, which is represented within the Amazon region. In the first manuscript or print version of the Carte de [＇Amdrique mdridionale in 1748, on sheet l--depicting the Amazonian region--one can see that Lake Parima is not presente. Following the information of the French La Condamine had gathered on his expedition traveling down the Amazon and scorning tradition, d＇Anville did not include Lake Parima but Lake Amucu, placing it not in Guiana, in the Portuguese portion of the territory, below the Orinoco River and to the north of the Amazon. This was due to a manuscript map drawn up by a Prussian whom La Condamine had met during his trip down the Amazon, Nicholas Horstman. In the 1760 version--we see to our surprise that the geographer has included Lake Parima. This article aims to discuss the disappearance of the lake in the first version of the map and why does he then add it in 1760.
