Carte de L'Europe

This colossal wall map of Europe (one of the largest we have ever offered for sale) was published in 1797 at the height of the French Revolutionary Wars by the Belgian cartographer Jean-Baptiste de Bouge. Measuring almost 2½ metres in width and 2m in height, this map describes the political situation of Europe in 1797 with exquisite detail. The map consists of 50 panels, each measuring 45 x 26cm. As mentioned in an advertisement in the lower-right corner of the map, de Bouge also offered this map in atlas format with each panel published as a separate page in the atlas. Dissected and linen-backed examples like this one are far rarer than the atlas maps, and are also far more desirable, particularly in such fine original hand-colour.

The map's publisher, Jean Baptiste de Bouge, was born in the Austrian Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) in 1657. He held several cartographic posts in the Low Countries prior to the French Revolution, gaining a reputation as an able surveyor. However, he was forced to flee his homeland during the French invasion of Belgium in 1794. He travelled first to the Netherlands, then to Germany, and finally to Vienna, where he established himself as an engraver, cartographer, and printer. Curiously, de Bouge chose to return to the Low Countries during the Napoleonic period, where he was appointed the head of the Topographical Bureau of the Kingdom of Holland. When the Kingdom of Holland was officially united with France in 1810, the Topographical Bureau's headquarters was moved from Amsterdam to Paris. He retired in Paris in 1814, but lived for another 19 years, long enough to see the establishment of Belgium as an independent nation in 1831.

Original colour. Folded.

[EUR1369]