The National Library recently purchased a rare and detailed atlas
of Chinas provinces, published by the cartographer Jean B. B.
DAnville.
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon DAnville was a noted French
cartographer in the eighteenth century, appointed royal geographer
and cartographer and elected to the Académie des Sciences in
1773. Described as a map editor who designed new maps by collecting
and comparing as many sources as possible, DAnville was
renowned for his scrupulous attention to detail, correcting and
reissuing maps as new information became available. Each important
map was published with a critical essay on geography and
cartography. His output was consequently small, numbering about 200
maps, with several significant atlases included.
He first published his Nouvel atlas de la Chine in 1737.
Consisting of 42 maps, each of the separate provinces are described
in detail and extend to the territories of Tibet, with 10 sheets,
and Korea, with one general map of the country. The atlas was first
published to accompany Pere J.B. du Haldes Description géographique,
historique, chronologique, et physique de lempire de la Chine,
which the Library holds in its Rare Book collection. The atlas is
important not only for the detailed coverage of China, but also
because it contains the first separate map of Korea by a European
cartographer, the first serious study of Tibet and the most
important set of maps of China since the Blaeu/Martini atlas, which
the Library also holds in the 1659 edition of the work.
The second edition of the DAnville atlas, published in 1785,
is not widely held, and provides an important link in the range of
mapping the Library holds of Chinas provinces from the
seventeenth century through to the late twentieth century.
Maura OConnor