World Known to the Ancients, d'Anville Map for Rollin's Ancient History, 1818
€ 395
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1818
Mapmaker / artist
Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, cartographer
Publisher
Ledoux et Tenré, Paris
Technique
Copper Engraving
Coloring
Uncolored
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14399-1
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
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner. Several larger brown marks. Tide line along the bottom margin. Center fold as issued.
About this sheet
An original copper engraved map, uncolored, of the world as the ancients knew it, drawn on a curved graticule. Europe, the northern part of Africa and Asia as far as the Pays des Sines are shown, with the Mer Atlantique along the left side, the Mer Glacée at the top and the Mer Erythrée to the south of Arabia and India. Thule lies in the far north, Taprobana in the Indian Ocean, and Agisymba and Ophir at the southern edge. A long engraved note in Asia explains that the map is limited to the parts the ancients were believed to know, and at the Prasum Promontory the lettering marks where the knowledge of the ancients ends.
The title cartouche at lower left reads Le Monde connu des Anciens, Pour l'intelligence de l'Histoire ancienne de Rollin, Par d'Anville, Géographe ord.re du Roi. The plate is numbered Pl 1.ère above the upper right corner of the border. The block of scales at lower right, headed Echelles, gives bars for Milles Romains, Stades Grecs, Parasanges Persanes and Lieues Françaises. No engraver is named on the sheet.
The plate comes from the Atlas de Géographie Ancienne, published in Paris in 1818 by Ledoux et Tenré and printed by Didot le jeune to accompany the works of Charles Rollin (1661 to 1741), the French historian whose Histoire ancienne the map was drawn to illustrate. The title page states that the atlas was engraved after the original maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697 to 1782). Its table of plates carries a foreword signed by Ambroise Tardieu, géographe-graveur, who writes that the maps were copied with religious fidelity and that, charged with reviewing the proofs, he had only negligences and defects of execution to correct.
Condition: Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along all four edges. Foxing over much of the margin. Slight wear at the top right corner. Several larger brown marks. Tide line along the bottom margin. Center fold as issued.
This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
