Peru & Upper Amazon – Enlightenment Map by Rigobert Bonne, c.1780
€ 440
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1780
Sheet size
41 × 26 cm (16.1 × 10.2 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14105-31
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Good antique condition. Light age toning and minor handling wear consistent with 18th-century copperplate engraving. Original centerfold as issued. Clean impression with strong legibility; margins ample for framing.
About this sheet
Peru and the lands to its east in a copper engraving by Rigobert Bonne, circa 1780, titled "Carte du Pérou avec une Partie des Pays qui en sont à l'Est," with the credit "Par Mr. Bonne, Ingénieur Hydrographe de la Marine." The sheet is printed in black without color.
The long Pacific coast, lettered "Mer du Sud," runs down the left side of the sheet from northern Peru toward Upper Peru (modern Bolivia) at the foot, with the Tropic of Capricorn marked below. Provinces such as Trujillo and Potosí are named, and the Andes are drawn as chains of small mountains between the coastal towns and the interior. To the east the sheet opens onto the Amazon basin, where the "Pays des Amazones" is lettered across the lowlands, and the Native peoples of the region are named in italic script along the rivers. Scale bars for Spanish, Castilian, marine and common French leagues are placed at the bottom.
Bonne was hydrographer to the French navy at the Dépôt de la Marine in Paris, succeeding Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, and his regional maps of South America circulated in atlases of the 1780s. This sheet shows the Spanish viceroyalty of Peru together with the little-known missions and peoples of its eastern frontier.
