Southern Brazil & Río de la Plata – Enlightenment Map by Rigobert Bonne, c.1780
€ 405
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1780
Sheet size
26 × 41 cm (10.2 × 16.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14105-35
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
Southern Brazil and the Río de la Plata region in a copper engraving by Rigobert Bonne, circa 1780, titled "Carte de la Partie Méridionale du Bresil, avec les Possessions Espagnoles Voisines qui en sont à l'Ouest," credited "Par M. Bonne, Ingénieur Hydrographe de la Marine." The sheet is printed in black without color.
The Atlantic coast of Brazil runs diagonally across the right half of the sheet, with the Tropic of Capricorn marked and a band of engraved shading in the ocean ("Océan Méridional"). Inland the map follows the Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay rivers down to the great estuary of the Río de la Plata at the lower left, with Buenos Aires and the Spanish provinces of Tucumán and the Chaco on the western side. The Portuguese governments of Mato Grosso and São Paulo are lettered across the interior, and coastal places are named all the way down to the Río de la Plata. Scale bars in several kinds of league (Spanish, Castilian, marine and common French) sit at the lower right beneath the title.
Bonne was hydrographer to the French navy at the Dépôt de la Marine in Paris, succeeding Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, and the sheet shows the frontier where Portuguese Brazil and the Spanish colonies met.
