1749 Vaugondy Map of North Africa

Map of North Africa including Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Cairo.

This is a pair of 1749 Gilles Robert de Vaugondy maps of North Africa. Both maps depict the African parts of the Ottoman Empire. The map at the top of the page stretches from Morocco (Royaume de Fez) to Libya (Royaume de Tripoli) and from the Mediterranean to the Sahara about half way into Algeria. The second map, below the first one, depicts from Libya to the Red Sea and Jerusalem and from the Mediterranean to the Egyptian border.

The top map focuses on modern-day Algeria and Tunisia. The Algerian cities of Algiers (Alger) and Constantine (Constantina) are labeled and the Royaume d'Alger hugs the Mediterranean coast, bordered on the inland side by the Atlas Mountains. Tunisia, the Royaume de Tunis also hugs the coast and both Tunis and Biserte are labeled. The map only covers part of the Royaume de Tripoli, Libya. Tripoli is depicted on this map. The vast blank space of the Sahara (Saara) occupies well over half of the map, allowing the viewer a glimpse into the scope of the desert.

The lower map focuses on the rest of Libya and all of Egypt. It also presents a rough sketch of the western portion of the Arabian Peninsula, to situate the map in a broader regional context. Cities are labeled along the Libyan coast, including Benghazi (Bengasi). The detail presented in Libya pales in comparison to that depicted in Egypt. Cities, including Giza and Cairo (Le Caire) dot the course of the Nile from the southern Egyptian border to its mouth in the Mediterranean. Alexandria is situated at the mouth of the Nile. Various mountain ranges are depicted in profile. Suez is labeled and the Red Sea is shown much larger than it is. In the rather blank space of Arabia, two locations are labeled: Jerusalem and Mt. Sinai.

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. 205, 432. OCLC 159769954.