Beschreibung:

FRANCE]. CASSINI DE THURY, CSAR FRANCOIS. Carte de France... [Index Map: Nouvelle Carte, qui comprend les principaux triangles qui servent de fondement la description gomtrique de la France, leve par ordre du Roy par Messrs. Maraldi & Cassini de Thury, de l'Acadmie Royale des Sciences]. Paris, 1744-60. Engraved by Aldring, Aveline, Brunet, Chalmandrier, Desfontaines, Dupain-Triel fils , Durand, Le Roy and Sguin. 182 sheets, each approximately 580 x 920 mm. (23 x 36 in.) and mounted on linen (mostly in 21 or 15 segments), 17 sheets hand-colored (14 partially, one in outline, 2 fully), browning to some sheets, light worming to sheet 104; housed in 28 board pull-off cases, each with two paper lettering pieces. All sheets are mounted on linen, mostly on two different stocks and with paper label of the distributer, Auvray, Marchand d'Estampes et de Cartes Gographiques (13 sheets with labels of 3 other distributors). "The second Cassini national map survey was a matter of national pride. As a publishing venture it has few peers in the history of cartography... it is one of the best-known artifacts of the eighteenth century... The second map survey originated in the army's need for better maps... Placed side by side, the sheets cover an area eleven by eleven meters." The production of the map was very expensive. Cassini managed to get support from leading members of the nobility and from the scientific community. Within a week he found more than 50 subscribers. "The number of copies of each sheet was fixed at 2,500... Many maps, for example, of sparsely populated areas, sold very badly by the sheet, since few people were interested in them, whereas demand for maps of other areas, such as Paris, exceeded production... By 1760, 50 maps of the 180 projected were finished, all in the north-central part of France. Between 1760 and 1770, 38 were published, covering all of eastern France, central France north of Lyon, and western France east of Rennes and north of Poitiers. Forty-five more were available by 1780, covering Anjou, Poitou, the Dauphin, and Provence. The Limousin, the Pyrenees frontier, and the region of Nice appeared between 1780 and 1789. All fieldwork but not all engraving was completed by 1789." (Konvitz, Cartography in France 1660-1848 . Chicago, 1987, pp. 21-25). Overall the publication of Cassini's map dates from 1750-1815. Most of the sheets of the above map are not dated. The keys are dated 1744 and 1827, and a few of the other sheets are dated 1756-1760. British Museum Catalogue of Printed Maps, Charts and Plans III:899. [ With :] SGUIN, JEAN. [Manuscript:] "Recueil contenant les titres des 180 feuilles qui composent la Carte de France, avec les noms des grandes routes qui traversent les d.tes feuilles... dress l'usage des postes par order de M. Jannel... Intendant Gnral des Postes et Relais de France". [Paris], 1769. [2] 184 [27] pp., folio, in a neat secretarial hand, later 18th-century tree calf gilt, tail of spine chipped . The manuscript is apparently unfinished, many of the pages in the second half being blank except for headlines. The unnumbered pages at end contain an alphabetical index of principal towns. (28)