Condamine, Charles Marie de La
Charles Marie de La Condamine (January 28, 1701 – February 4, 1774) was a French explorer, geographer, and mathematician. He was a contemporary and friend of Voltaire, with whom he successfully gamed the French lottery. He took part in the French Geodesic Mission, tasked with performing measurements near the equator in order to test Newton's theory regarding the oblate shape of the globe. In conjunction with similar measurements performed by an expedition to Lapland, by Maupertuis, Clairaut, and Le Monnier, the Geodesic Mission was able to declare Newton's theory correct. This project resulted in the first map of the Amazon region based on astronomical observation. (Condamine also produced, based on experiences in this journey, the first scientific paper on the properties of rubber.)
Comparing two groundbreaking maps of the Amazon on one sheet.
Carte du Cours du Maragnon ou de la Grande Riviere des Amazones Dans sa partie navigable depuis Jaen de Bracamoros jusqu'a son Embouchure et qui comprend la Province de Quito, et la Côte de la Guïane depuis le Cap de Nord jusqu'à Esséquebè.
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- Digital Map Information
- Suitable for large format printing
- DPI: 600
- File Size: 5.94 MB
- File Type: ZIP / TIFF
- ICC color profile embedded
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This is a fascinating 1780 map of the Amazon river basin, spanning the breadth of the South American continent, embracing Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. It displays the mapping of the great river produced in 1743 by the French Geodesic Mission under Charles Marie de La Condamine, which still represented the state of the art. This exhaustive mapping of the Amazon and its tributaries is shown overlaying another map of the Amazon, this one executed in 1707 by the Jesuit Father Samuel Fritz. His mapping of the Amazon had been the first accurate one to be produced, and so to have it compare so poorly to Condamine's was to present a flourish on behalf of modern, French scientific geography. (more details)