1794 Anville Map of the Ancient World
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Description: A large and dramatic composite 1794 map of the world as it was known to the ancients, by J. B. B. D'Anville. Covers all of Europe, Asia Minor, Arabia and India, much of Northern Africa, and parts of Southeast Asia. D'Anville compiled this map from various sources including Ptolemy, Herodotus, Thucydides, and others. In Africa, the author notes various cities from Ptolemy's Geographica, including Rapta, Axum, Garama, and others. Includes the Mountains of the Moon, Lakes of the Nile, and other conjectural destinations. Far in the south a note reads, "Aethiopes Anthropophagi", which essentially translates to African Cannibals. In the Far East a number of classical locals are noted, including the island of Taprobana (Celon) and the empires of Southeast Asia. Details mountains, rivers, cities, roadways, and lakes with political divisions highlighted in outline color. Title cartouche appears in a baroque frame in the upper left quadrant. Cartouche is flanked on either side by malignant appearing figure with a telescope and a studious scholar reading a book. Includes eight distance scales, bottom left, referencing various measurement systems common in antiquity. Text in Latin and English. Drawn by J. B. B. D'Anville in 1762 and published in 1794 by Laurie and Whittle, London.
Date: 1794 (dated)
Source: D'Anville, J. B. B., Complete Body of Ancient Geography, Laurie and Whittle, London, 1795.
Cartographer: Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782) was perhaps the most important and prolific cartographer of the 18th century. D'Anville's love of cartography manifested itself at the tender age of fifteen, when he amused himself by composing maps for Latin authors. At twenty-two D'Anville was appointed Geographer to the King of France. As both a cartographer and a geographer, he instituted a reform in the general practice of cartography. Unlike most cartographers, D'Anville did not rely on earlier maps to inform his work, rather he based his maps on actual surveys and research that he conducted himself. His maps were thus the most accurate and comprehensive of his period. Thomas Basset and Philip Porter write: "It was because of D'Anville's resolve to depict only those features which could be proven to be true that his maps are often said to represent a scientific reformation in cartography." (The Journal of African History, Vol. 32, No. 3 (1991), pp. 367-413). The work of D'Anville thus marks a critical point in the history of cartography and opens the way to the maps of English cartographers Cary, Thomson and Pinkerton in the early 19th century. Click here for a list of rare maps by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville.
Cartographer: Laurie and Whittle (fl. 1794 - 1858) were London, England, based map and atlas publishers active in the late 18th and early 19th century. Generally considered to be the successors to the Robert Sayer firm, Laurie and Whittle was founded by Robert Laurie (c. 1755 - 1836) and James Whittle (1757-1818). Robert Laurie was a skilled mezzotint engraver and is known to have worked with Robert Sayer on numerous projects. James Whittle was a well-known London socialite and print seller whose Fleet Street shop was a popular haunt for intellectual luminaries. The partnership began taking over the general management of Sayer's firm around 1787; however, they did not alter the Sayer imprint until after Sayer's death in 1794. Apparently Laurie did most of the work in managing the firm and hence his name appeared first in the "Laurie and Whittle" imprint. Together Laurie and Whittle published numerous maps and atlases, often bringing in other important cartographers of the day, including Kitchin, Faden, Jefferys and others to update and modify their existing Sayer plates. Robert Laurie retired in 1812, leaving the day to day management of the firm to his son, Richard Holmes Laurie (1777 - 1858). Under R. H. Laurie and James Whittle, the firm renamed itself "Whittle and Laurie". Whittle himself died in six years later in 1818, and thereafter the firm continued under the imprint of "R. H. Laurie". After R. H. Laurie's death the publishing house and its printing stock came under control of A. G. Findlay, who had long been associated with Laurie and Whittle. Since, Laurie and Whittle has passed through numerous permeations, with part of the firm still extant as an English publisher of maritime or nautical charts, 'Imray, Laurie, Norie and Wilson Ltd.' Click here for a list of rare maps from Laurie & Whittle.
Size: Printed area measures 30 x 21 inches (76.2 x 53.34 centimeters)
Condition: Very good condition. Original centerfold. Platemark visible. Blank on verso.
Code: AncientWorld-anville-1794 (Necessary for phone inquiries: 646-320-8650)
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