1748 Vaugondy Map of Bavaria and Salzburg, Germany

Includes the Archbishopric of Salzburg.

This is a beautiful 1748 map of the Bavaria, in the southeast part of Germany by Robert de Vaugondy. It includes the Archbishopric of Saltzburg, and the Electorate of Bavaria and extends from Bamberg southto Innsbruck and east as far as Linz. Rivers, roads, lakes and other topography is also noted throughout, with mountains beautifully rendered in profile.

Prior to the French Revolutionary War and the Congress of Vienna, the Holy Roman Empire's Circle of Bavaria included the Archbishopric of Salzburg, and was bordered by Franconia, Bohemia, Swabia, and Austria.  After several wars with, and occupation by, Austria, the old Bavarian elector Max III Joseph died, leaving Bavaria and the electoral Palatinate to be governed once again in personal union. The Napoleonic Wars dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, briefly making Bavaria an independent kingdom and doubling its size, until Germany consolidated in 1871.

This map was published in the 1748 edition of Vaugondy's Atlas Portratif Universel et Militaire.

Cartographer

Robert de Vaugondy (fl. c. 1716 - 1786) was a French publishing firm run by Gilles (1688 - 1766) and Didier (c. 1723 - 1786) Robert de Vaugondy. They were map publishers, engravers, and cartographers active in Paris during the mid-18th century. Gilles was the nephew of Pierre Moulard Sanson, and was thus the inheritor of Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), whose stock supplied much of their initial material and whose legacy supplied much of their initial reputation. Graduating from Sanson's maps, Gilles, and more particularly Didier, began to produce their own substantial corpus. The Vaugondys were well-respected for the detail and accuracy of their maps, for which they capitalized on the resources of 18th-century Paris to compile the most accurate and fantasy-free maps possible. The Vaugondys compiled each map based on their own geographic knowledge, scholarly research, journals of contemporary explorers and missionaries, and direct astronomical observation. Moreover, unlike many cartographers of this period, they took pains to reference their sources. Nevertheless, even in 18th-century Paris, geographical knowledge was limited - especially regarding those unexplored portions of the world, including the poles, the Pacific Northwest of America, and the interiors of Africa, Australia, and South America. This gap in knowledge let to divergent geographical approaches, epitomized by the Buache-Vaugondy debates at the French Academie des Sciences - one of the key pivotal moments in the history of modern cartography. Buache, in his Exposé, argued for a Theoretical Geography, which postulated that a systematic and scientific approach could accurately fill in the map in advance of actual exploration. Vaugondy's scathing critique of the Exposé, presented as the Considerations, argued for empirical restraint in cartography, suggesting that unexplored areas should simply be left blank and that mapping itself should rely on documentable current discovery. While Bucahe, with more political acumen and connections, initially came out ahead in the debates, the subsequent decades saw voyages of discovery by Captains James Cook, Jean Francois de Galaup de La Perouse, and George Vancouver disprove most of his map. Nonetheless, by that time, Vaugondy, advanced in age, did not live long enough to see his approach become ascendant. Didier died more celebrated than solvent, and his maps were acquired by Jean-Baptiste Fortin, who in 1787 sold them to Charles-François Delamarche (1740 - 1817). Delamarche, more businessman than cartographer, prospered from the Vaugondy maps, but defrauded Vaugondy's widow, Marie Louise Rosalie Dangy, of her rightful inheritance and may even have killed her.   Further Details...

Source

Robert de Vaugondy, G., Atlas Portatif, Universel, et Militaire, (Paris: Vaugondy, Durand, Pissot) 1748.    

Condition

Very good. Original platemark visible. Minor foxing.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 179, 273.