Guillaume Delisle; 1675-1726.
Philippe Buache, successor; 1700-1773.
Jean-Nicolas Buache de la Neuville, nephew of Philippe; 1741-1815.
Jean A Dezauche, publisher & successor.
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 mapmaking 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 Giovanni Battista Albrizzi as the "Atlante Novissimo" in
Venice.
Upon his death, his relative and associate Philippe Buache
took over his practice, and built upon both G Delisle and
H A Jaillot's works. Unfortunately, his "theoretical" approach
to mapmaking led him to rather embarrassing errors (of note
the Alaska coast map with the non-existant Sea of the West).
J A Dezauche, geographer, engraver and publisher, continued
to produce and sell their maps (as well as maps from other
famous cartographers, such as D'Anville and Mannevillette),
till about 1831.
Giambattista (Giovanni Battista) Albrizzi; 1698- 1777.
A Venetian journalist and publisher, from Amsterdam Albrizzi took inspiration from best-known atlases which he translated into Italian and published in Venice. He was also publishing a number of maps and illustrated books. "Gerusalemme Liberata" is the most celebrated book published by Albrizzi.
This seminal book was published in two volumes in collaboration with famed engraver Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. It is noteworthy that the Albrizzi's family was active in publishing and selling the book in Venice for about 150 years.
Carta geografica
della Florida, nell' America settentrionale.
This map (16 ¾" X 12 ¾"), printed for the "Atlante
Novissimo", published in 1740 and 1750, was derived from the
ground breaking 1703 Delisle map: "Carte du Mexique et de
la Floride, .", which was among the first to depict correctly
both the position of the Mississippi River and the shape of
its basin. It was based on the reports of two voyagers: La
Salle and d'Iberville (sailing down the river in 1682 and
1701 respectively).
But it is retrogressive, repeating major misconceptions which
had been corrected by the same Delisle in his 1718 Louisiane
map!
Witness: the imaginary mountain range cutting across the Mississippi,
the fanciful St John River (flowing to and from the Atlantic),
the straight course of the Apalachicola, the mythical lake
in the south Appalachians, the general shape of the Florida
peninsula.
It is however fascinating in some of its details:
- French fort on the Texas coast: Saint Louis, renamed San
Bernardo by the Spaniards (allusion to the town established
on Matagorda Bay by Robert Cavelier de La Salle in 1684, soon
abandoned, and then reoccupied and renamed in 1722 by the
Spaniards).
- fort at the mouth of the Mississippi, set up by
the French to protect their main business up river, which
soon evolved to become the new Louisana capital city: New Orleans.
- the Audience of Florida (with four provinces: Florida, Apalache,
Concachi Apalachicola, and Cadodaquio), most of it void of
colonial population and control... opening the door for a
French takeover (claim issued by La Salle in 1682, safe for
the peninsula) and a renaming to Louisiane.
- the huge fortress at San Augustine "to the Spanish", and
the nearby San Mateo "to the English" (allusion to the 1700
and 1740 English raids, each an unsuccessful siege of San
Augustine fort San Marco).
No text on verso.
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