1778 Vaugondy Map of Mexico, Central America, Florida and the West Indies

This is an uncommon 1778 map of Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Florida and West Indies by Robert de Vaugondy. Centered on the Gulf Coast, it covers from Baja California to Florida and the Lesser Antilles, and from the Chesapeake Bay south as far as Bogota in Columbia. Being primarily a map of Mexico and the Spanish holdings in North America, this excellent map details the various Mexican states naming countless towns, villages, and haciendas.

The map extends northward into the vast and largely unknown American West. Vaugondy sets the Rio del Palma as the northern border of New Spain (Mexico) and the border of Louisiana just west of the Mississippi, clearly defining the regional boundaries of 'Nouveau Mexique' roughly along the lines of early 19th century Texas. The Mississippi Valley itself is poorly represented, as is Florida, whose southern top is a network of islands and canals â€' a common if primitive attempt to describe the everglades.

An inset in the top right quadrant features the Azores Islands of Portugal. This map was engraved by E. Dussy and issued by Robert de Vaugondy in 1778.

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...

Condition

Very good. Original platemark visible. Minor wear along original centerfold. Minor spotting.

References

Pedley, Mary Sponberg Belle et Utile: The Work of the Robert de Vaugondy Family of Mapmakers, 481, state 2.