ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical and cartographic underpinning of Abbe Jean Paulmier's paradoxical initiative and will then trace briefly the largely occult influence of Paulmier's Memoires. Maps were an essential part of Paulmier's demonstration in the Memoires of the existence of the Terres australes and he chose them eclectically, using a variety of sometimes conflicting world maps to frame his argument. During the sixteenth century interest in the idea of Terra Australis was already taking shape in France, together with thoughts of possible conquest. Around the middle of the seventeenth century, the chronological sequence of maps representing Terra Australis highlights the confusion operating between the mapping of the real, and imaginary cartography. One of the earliest maps depicting Terra Australis was French. Paulmier's localization of the Terres australes became anchored in French consciousness and was also the focal point for French voyages of discovery to the Terres australes in the eighteenth century.
