1749 Vaugondy Map of Cape Breton Island, Canada

Very rare map of Cape Breton Island, Canada.

This is a hand colored 1749 Didier Robert de Vaugondy map of Cape Breton Island. Specific maps of Cape Breton Island are extremely rare. The map depicts the whole of Cape Breton Island from Port Hawkesbury to Bay Saint Lawrence and the extreme northeastern coast of Nova Scotia (Accadie).

The map is titled Isle Royale because in 1749 Cape Breton Island was the French colony Isle Royale. Isle Royale was part of New France from 1713 to 1763. Isle Royale came into French possession following the War of the Spanish Succession. The map depicts the colonial capital of Louisbourg, which was founded in 1713. Isle Royale became a battleground in the wars between Britain and France for control of North America. The French built a fortress at Louisbourg, to protect their North American possessions and the fishermen who worked the seas around Isle Royale. During the wars between the British and the French in the 18th century, Louisbourg fell under siege twice, once in 1745, after which Isle Royale was returned to the French, and again in 1758 during the Seven Years' War. Isle Royale was officially ceded to Great Britain in 1763, when it became Cape Breton Island.

This map was published by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy in his Atlas Universel, Portatif et Militaire in the 1749 edition.

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) 1749.    

Condition

Very good. Blank on verso. Original press mark visible.

References

Pedley, M. S., Bel et Utile, p. 213, 463.