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Rare map of Puerto Rico, which accompanied the rare German edition of Andree Pierre Ledru's work on the natural history of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Teneriffe, first published in Paris in 1810.
Andre Pierre Ledru (1761-1825) served as the botanist for Nicolas Baudin's expedition to the Canary and West India Islands from 1797-1798. His official account of his observations, " Voyage aux isles de Tenerif, La Trinite, St. Thomas, Ste. Croix, et Porto Rico, execute par l'ordre du gouvernement Frangais, par Andre Pierre Ledru, l'un des naturalistes de l'expedition," was published in Paris and translated into German (1814). A Spanish translation of the part of this book that relates to Porto Rico was made by Julio L. Vizcarrondo (Porto Rico, 1863).
The expedition was a great success, they returned with a huge collection of geological samples, fauna, shells and fossils, along with 195 botanical samples. The work is also noteworthy for Ledru's updated edition of Thomas Lopez de Vargas Machuca's extremely rare wall map of Puerto Rico and Vieques. Only a few Spanish maps were published at this time, as Spanish authories wished to keep detailed infomation and knowlegde of their own political interests under strickt control. Spanish maps of Puerto Rico from this period are very rare, as are maps based upon official Spanish sources.
