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DE L'ISLE, Guillaume (1675-1726)
[Composite Atlas
Paris or Amsterdam: n.dd, maps dated: 1701-1739]. 2 volumes, folio (21 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches). 1p. manuscript list of contents in French in each volume. 98 engraved maps, charts or town plans (3 folding, 95 double-page, 96 hand-coloured in outline). Contemporary calf gilt, covers panelled in gilt with fillets, a decorative roll and dog-tooth rolls, decorative cornerpieces made up from various small tools, spines gilt in eight compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, the other compartments with repeat decoration in gilt.
A very fine example of a composite atlas of the highest quality, made up entirely of maps by Guillaume de L'Isle: one of the greatest cartographers of his age.
De L'Isle was the son of a cartographer and pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who, among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy with the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De L'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive. He has often been cited as the first truly scientific cartographer, and his maps were widely copied by the commercial ateliers of Paris, Amsterdam, and the rest of Europe. He was elected to the French Academy of Science in 1702 and in 1718 was named "Premier Geographe du Roi," a title created especially for him.
In addition to a fine world map and four hemispheric world maps, this atlas also includes nine maps of American interest, four of which are further described here:
1. Carte d'Amerique. [vol.II, map 8]. Considered one of de l'Isle's finest maps, the chart is one of the most accurate depictions of North and South America of the period. In de L'Isle's elegant map North and South America are shown on a large enough scale that western Europe and Africa are included. The map includes the rectification of South America's eastern coast line, correcting a map of South America whose Chilean-Argentinean peninsula swung to the west. The map also includes a Prime Meridian declared by Louis XIII, but not adopted; and Pope Alexander VI's Line of Demarcation that divided the world (outside of Europe) between Portugal and Spain. Finally, it should be noted that de L'Isle resisted the temptation to depict California as an island, which was being done by many mapmakers of the period.
2. Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France. [vol.I, map 27]. This was the first printed map to name Detroit, at the time of its original issue in 1703. It was a painstaking incorporation of all the geographical material available, including some quite fictitious information concerning the origins of the Mississippi. The depictions of Hudson Bay, Labrador, Greenland and Baffin Bay are remarkably good. Schwartz and Ehrenberg, p.141.
3. Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi. [vol.I, map 28]. This is the first edition, second state, the first map to show New Orleans. It is one of the most important maps of America ever made. The first accurate depiction of the watershed of the Mississippi River; the first map to name Texas (as "Mission de los Teijas") In addition, de L'Isle has included the routes of several early and contemporary explorers, such as De Soto, La Salle, and Saint Denis. Because de L'Isle was geographer to the King, his maps were regarded as quasi-official documents that reflected the opinions of the French government, the boundaries that he laid down for French Louisiana caused great alarm in both London and Madrid. De L'Isle shows Louisiana extending as far west as the Pecos River, thereby claiming Texas as part of that French colony, while restricting the British to the eastern slope of the Appalachian Mountains. The map was originally published in June 1718, and did not show New Orleans, founded in that same summer. When word of the establishment of the city reached France, de L'Isle revised the map and added New Orleans. This map in the second state is the first to show that important American city. Cumming, British Maps, pp. 6-12; Cumming, Southeast in Early Maps, entry 170 and pp. 21-24; Cumming &c., Exploration of North America, pp. 35-54; McCorkle, America Emergent, entry 20; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, Mapping of America, p. 146.
4. Carte du Mexique et de la Floride. [vol.I, map 29]. By 1703, when de L'Isle had prepared his new map of Mexico and Florida, much new information on the area had become available since Coronelli's effort fifteen years before. Firsthand reports from the survivors of Lasalle's expedition, as well as from the French explorers and colonizers of the Gulf region like Bienville and d'Iberville, were carefully studied. De L'Isle's chart was the first printed map to accurately`portray the course and mouth of the Mississippi River. He correctly depicted the Great Lakes region, as well as the many English settlements along the East Coast. He also carefully set down the explorations of d'Iberville and his men on the Gulf Coast and the lower reaches of the Mississippi and Red River, and the Indian villages in East Texas where the Spanish constructed their missions and presidios. Texas and Oklahoma were portrayed as part of "Floride" then a French possession, which was later changed to Louisiana. James C. Martin, Maps of Texas and the Southwest, 1513-1900 p.93; Bryan & Hanak Texas in Maps 10; Cumming, Southeast in Early Maps, 137; Alfred E. Lemmom and others (editors) Charting Louisiana p.39; Phillips Atlases 533; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, Mapping of America, p.137; Wagner, The Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America 474; Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 84.
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#19525 $75,000.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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