Guillaume Delisle; 1675-1726.
Philippe Buache, successor; 1700-1773.
Jean-Nicolas Buache de la Neuville, nephew of Philippe; 1741-1815.
Jean Claude Dezauche, publisher & successor; 1745-1824.
The son of geographer and historian Claude Delisle (also
spelled: de l'Isle), Guillaume was the whiz kid of the family
(even though two of his brothers, Joseph Nicolas and Louis,
also attained some fame at the service of Tsar Peter the Great).
He was elected at the "Académie Royale des Sciences" at the
very young age of twenty seven, and was later appointed as
First Geographer to the King.
His success is due to his formal math and astronomy training
(under the guidance of the famous J D Cassini). The scientific
approach he took to map making made him the trail blazer of
french cartography and a much copied author.
His "Atlas de Géographie" published between 1700 and 1718,
was re-issued between 1730 and 1774 by Covens & Mortier in
Amsterdam, and then again re-issued between 1740 and 1750
by Giovani Battista Albrizzi as the "Atlante Novissimo" in
Venice.
Upon his death, his son-in-law and associate Philippe Buache
took over his practice, and built upon both G Delisle and
A H Jaillot's works. Unfortunately, his "theoretical" approach
to map making led him to rather embarrassing errors (of note
the Alaska coast map with the un-existant western sea).
J C Dezauche, geographer, engraver and publisher, and his
son Jean André Dezauche, continued to produce and sell their
maps (as well as maps from other famous cartographers of whom
they had purchased the plates, such as D'Anville and Mannevillette),
till about 1831.
Plan de la baye et port de Rio Janeiro, située à
la coste du Brésil ..
This very large (19 9/16" X 28 3/16") map is directly inspired
from a 1751 smaller work by Jean Baptiste Nicolas Denis d'Après
de Mannevillette (with same title).
The present item was published in 1785, possibly for a remake
of "Atlas geographique des quatre parties du monde".
It depicts in great details the whole Guanabara bay and the
nascent town of Rio.
One fascinating detail near the town: the little island of
"Vilgagnon". Today, this island is connected to the Santos
Dumont airport, it is home for the Brazil Naval School. Its
name derives from the name of the founding father of the town:
Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon who established there in 1555
a French Huguenot colony (on the island a fortress: fort Coligny)
and on the mainland shore a village: Henriville (renamed Rio
de Janeiro in 1565 when Estacio de Sa took over the whole
territory in the name of Portugal).
Notice that quite a few place names are familiar: Bota Sago,
Galiao,.
No text on verso.
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