This is an unusual and scarce double-hemisphere world map with a fantastic marriage of 18th Century map making and popular astronomical science.  The map shows primarily land outlines and a few major rivers and lakes.  Australia is joined to both Tasmania and Papua New Guinea. The mapping of the Northwest Coast of America is quite conservative, with no hint of the Bay of the West or any of the other fantastic mythical projections popularized by the French and English mapmakers of the period.   Antarctica is still missing. The map is covered with extensive scientific information engraved across the face of the map and in the borders around the hemispheres.  The hemispheres are surrounded by astronomical diagrams of  the movements of the planets, according to Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Descartes. Around the title is an elaborately engraved cartouche featuring a portrait in profile of Louis XV and a vignette of cherubs studying a globe.  Engraved by Lattre and hand colored.