Antique World Map 1752 — Robert de Vaugondy, Mappemonde

An old world map from the Paris workshop of Robert de Vaugondy

Mappemonde ou Description du globe terrestre: the title is plain, and so is the ambition behind it. Didier Robert de Vaugondy was twenty-nine in 1752 and already working in the family house that would supply France with atlases for the rest of the century. Two hemispheres, 35 cm across each, hand-colored, mounted on a sheet of 56 × 79 cm, with relief drawn pictorially. The imprint reads: A Paris, chez les srs Robert, and the bookseller Antoine Boudet.

What the catalogue records

The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library gives the scale as roughly 1:27,500,000 and adds a detail most catalogues leave out: the scale was determined from the graticule, measured at 15° north. That is the kind of note that tells you the sheet was measured rather than guessed at. Identifier 06_01_005933, shelfmark G3200 1752 .R6, subject heading world maps, early works to 1800. One honest point: two library stamps and a pencil note fall inside the printed area of the sheet. We left them where they are — they are part of the object's history, not damage to be painted out.

France between two surveys

1752 sits in the middle of the French century of measurement: the Académie royale des sciences had reformed the map of France, the Cassini survey was under way, and Paris had become the place where a hemisphere was expected to be accurate rather than decorative. A Vaugondy world map of these years is drawn to that standard — the ornament kept in the cartouche, the coastlines left to speak for themselves. 1752 is the year of this sheet, not necessarily of the first cutting of the plate.

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How to print

• Print at 300 dpi at the size above and do not let the shop scale the file up.
• Pick the archive whose proportions match your frame, so nothing is cropped or stretched.
• Ask for matte fine-art paper, printed in sRGB with auto-enhancement off.
• Where to print it: print shops near you and checked prices at online labs.

Source and rights

Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection, identifier 06_01_005933, shelfmark G3200 1752 .R6, record commonwealth:2514p0685. No known copyright restrictions and no known restrictions on use; the library is named in the passport inside every archive. Catalogue record: Leventhal Map & Education Center →

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