Miniature French Composite Atlas
Elaborate 18th-century Embroidered Silk Binding
A luxuriously bound French pocket atlas. The engraved title, which was likely supplied at the time of binding, is from a work concerned with love songs: Le Trottoir du Permesse, ou Le Rimeur Fantastique. The text pages relate geography. With 2 foldout engraved mapsheets at front and back containing 7 different maps total:
Folding sheets:
- Mappemonde par M. Brion de la Tour [on verso:] Europe and France.
- Asia and Africa [on verso:] North America and South America.
The tiny map of North America, which measures about 3 x 3 inches square, labels Florida rather prominently, with the British Colonies named Colonies Ang. On the Pacific coast, San Francisco is called P. de Drake. Elsewhere N. Albion, Nouveau Mexique, Santa Fe, Louisiane, New Orleans, and Arkansas are noted.
Provenance: Carlo de Poortere, with his bookplate.
Louis Brion de la Tour (ca. 1743-1803) was a French geographer and demographer. Little is known about Louis’ early life, but some glimpses of his professional life survive. He did achieve the title of Ingénieur Géographe du Roi. Much of his work was done in partnership with Louis Charles Desnos, who was bookseller and geographical engineer for globes to the Danish Crown. He worked on the Indicateur fidèle ou guide des voyageurs, qui enseigne toutes les routes royales between 1762 and 1785. During his career he also worked on several atlases. By 1795, he had gained a pension from the National Assembly. Perhaps this pension was granted in part because his son, also Louis Brion de la Tour (1763-1823), was an engraver who made Revolutionary prints, as well as maps.