Carte D'Asie

More so than any other individual, Guillaume de L'Isle was responsible for making Paris the most important European commercial map making centre of the early 18th century. He was a disciple of Sanson's subdued cartographic style, which he took to new heights, ushering in an age of carefully researched, practical geography. De L'Isle was born in 1675 to a family of map makers and was reputed to have drawn his first map at the age of nine. By the age of twenty seven, he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris and by 1718, he was made "Premier Geographe du Roi", a post specifically made for him. He died in 1726.



De L'Isle lived in the France of Louis XIV, the regency of Philip II, Duke of Orleans and of Louis XV. It was a time of Jesuit expansion, French colonial might and fierce competition between the French, Dutch, Spanish and English for influence, land and power all over the world. Due to his family's standing, his tutelage under the astronomer Cassini and his own prodigious skill, de L'Isle had unrivalled access to sources unavailable to his contemporaries and vast influence over the Parisian cartographic trade.



De L'Isle's first map of Asia was issued in 1700. This map was considered to be the most accurate of its time, with substantial changes to the shape of the Peninsula of Arabia, new information gathered from the Chevalier de Chaumont's embassy to Siam (Thailand) and an elongated shape of the sub-continent of India as cartographers were beginning to realise that it was far larger than previously perceived.



Despite this early cartographic triumph, De L'Isle was a perfectionist and continued to gather information and update his maps regularly. This edition of this map in 1723 has such substantial updates to his earlier example that it should almost be considered a completely different map. The Caspian Sea has undergone an enormous change, based on charts sent by the Russian Royal Academy of Sciences to the Parisian Academy of the same name. As a member, de L'Isle would have had access to these. This map of Asia shows one of its first accurate depictions on a continental map.



The East Indies and the Philippines have both undergone substantial updates. The Korean Peninsula is broader and less elongated and its northern border has changed. These alterations may have been due to preliminary reports sent back to France by Jesuit missions undertaking important surveys of China under the instructions of the Kangxi Emperor in the early 18th century. They would not be completely published until the 1730s by Du Halde but it is certainly possible that early reports would have reached Paris well before their official publication. On the cartouche on the upper right, de L'Isle specifically cites the Jesuit Fathers as one of his main sources. Another major change in the Far East is the renaming of the sea east of Korea and north of Japan to the "Sea of Corea", replacing the earlier name of the Eastern Sea.



De L'Isle has also differentiated his map with charming additions of topography, mainly the great mountain chains of the continent and a beautiful stippled surface showing the deserts.

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