1670 Guillaume Sanson Map of Greece

Greece The Greek Islands during Venice's War with the Ottoman Empire.

This elegant, rare, French map of Greece, produced by Guillaume Sanson in 1670, presented a French audience with a view of Greece as a possession of the Ottoman Empire, wrestled over by the Venetian Republic - especially in the wake of the Cretan War (1645 - 1669) during which the Ottoman Empire had taken the island kingdom of Crete from Venice. The ongoing state of war is alluded to in the battle scene depicted to the right of the beautifully engraved cartouche, but the Ottoman occupation is indicated more cartographically than pictorially: a characteristic of the more scientific, factually-driven school of French mapmaking.

A Closer Look

This large, attractively engraved work presents Greece and the Greek Archipelago from the Gulf of Venice to the island of Rhodes; the map reaches as far north as the Black Sea and as far south as the island of Gozo, just south of Crete. Cities are marked: a key indicates those cities that were important Turkish administrative centers. Seventeen are marked as capitals of their Sanjaks. The map's original outline color delineates Ottoman borders with green; the islands outlined in orange are the handful of islands left to the Venetian Republic after the Cretan War. Although this map remained in print with no state changes well into the 18th century, the hand color reflects the state of affairs during the course of the Morean War, during which Venice captured Morea. The emphatic orange coloring of the island of Tinos (assigning it to Venice) suggests that the color was added prior to Venice's loss of the island in 1715.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved in 1670 for inclusion in Guillaume Sanson's atlases, which were published in partnership with Pierre Mariette. The map is recorded in a single state. The partnership with Mariette would continue until 1696, when Guillaume's nephew Pierre Mouillart-Sanson acquired the firm's stock and archives; he would continue to use the plate in his own atlases, as would Gilles Robert de Vaugondy when he inherited in 1730. The map is well represented in institutional collections but is scarce on the market.

Cartographers

Guillaume Sanson (1633 - 1703) was a French cartographer active in the latter part of the 17th century. He is the son of the legendary cartographer Nicolas Sanson (1600 - 1667), and, along with his brother Adrien Sanson (1639 - 1718), took over the family firm on his father's death. Like his father, Guillaume Louis XIV granted him the official title, Geographe Ordinaire du Roy. Much of his work after 1671 was published in collaboration with Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (c. 1632 - 1712). Although the continued to published new maps, particularly Guillaume Sanson, the firm began to lose prestige and market share. In 1692, the brothers sold their geographical archive to their nephew Pierre-Moulart Sanson (1670 - 1730), who published a map catalog in 1696 and reissued the Sanson atlas. After Pierre-Moulart's death, many of the surviving map plates were acquired by Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, setting the stage for another French cartographic dynasty.   Further Details...

Nicolas Sanson (December 20, 1600 - July 7, 1667) and his descendants were the most influential French cartographers of the 17th century and laid the groundwork for the Golden Age of French Cartography. Sanson was born in Picardy, but his family was of Scottish Descent. He studied with the Jesuit Fathers at Amiens. Sanson started his career as a historian where, it is said, he turned to cartography as a way to illustrate his historical studies. In the course of his research some of his fine maps came to the attention of King Louis XIII who, admiring the quality of his work, appointed Sanson Geographe Ordinaire du Roi. Sanson's duties in this coveted position included advising the king on matters of geography and compiling the royal cartographic archive. In 1644, he partnered with Pierre Mariette, an established print dealer and engraver, whose business savvy and ready capital enabled Sanson to publish an enormous quantity of maps. Sanson's corpus of some three hundred maps initiated the golden age of French mapmaking and he is considered the 'Father of French Cartography.' His work is distinguished as being the first of the 'Positivist Cartographers,' a primarily French school of cartography that valued scientific observation over historical cartographic conventions. The practice result of the is less embellishment of geographical imagery, as was common in the Dutch Golden Age maps of the 16th century, in favor of conventionalized cartographic representational modes. Sanson is most admired for his construction of the magnificent atlas Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde. Sanson's maps of North America, Amerique Septentrionale (1650), Le Nouveau Mexique et La Floride (1656), and La Canada ou Nouvelle France (1656) are exceptionally notable for their important contributions to the cartographic perceptions of the New World. Both maps utilize the discoveries of important French missionaries and are among the first published maps to show the Great Lakes in recognizable form. Sanson was also an active proponent of the insular California theory, wherein it was speculated that California was an island rather than a peninsula. After his death, Sanson's maps were frequently republished, without updates, by his sons, Guillaume (1633 - 1703) and Adrien Sanson (1639 - 1718). Even so, Sanson's true cartographic legacy as a 'positivist geographer' was carried on by others, including Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, Guillaume De L'Isle, Gilles Robert de Vaugondy, and Pierre Duval.   Further Details...

Source

Sanson, G., Cartes Générales de toutes les parties du Monde, (Paris: Mariette) 1670 - ????.    

Condition

Good. Waterstaining to upper margin, just entering printed area. Marginal mends at top. Generous margins; Original outline color.

References

OCLC 494274531. Rumsey 9741.348. Zacharakis, C., A Catalogue of Printed Maps of Greece 1477-1800 2439.