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Description

Striking 2-sheet map of Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, Mexico, Baja California, and part of the Caribbean, and Central America, published privately by Charles Francois Delamarche, based upon information compiled by the Depot De La Marine, under the direction of Rigobert Bonne.

This extraordinary map was produced under the direction of Rigobert Bonne, the Royal Hydrographer to the King of France during the American Revolution. In 1773, Bonne succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Royal Hydrographer (chart maker) to the King of France, overseeing the chartmakers of the Depot de la Marine. Working in his official capacity, Bonne compiled some of the most detailed and accurate maps of the period. Bonne's work represents an important step in the evolution of the cartographic ideology away from the decorative work of the 17th and early 18th century towards a more detail oriented and practical aesthetic.

This example is the second state of the map, following the first edition of 1780 and was apparently bound in two immense sheets in a late 18th Century Composite Atlas, the first time we have ever seen this unusual presentation. The map has been cut with very wide margins on one side of each sheet and narrow on the other, clearly issued as two sheets. This example apparently predates the 1786 state where the publisher is changed to Delamarche.

Covers the Southern US Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Shows provinces, numerous harbours and bays, towns, forts, channels, and a few routes of navigation. Also shows the direction of the trade winds, the Gulf Stream, and relief. Includes excellent detail along the coast of Florida, one of the best contemporary mappings of its coastline. Excellent detail in the Gulf Coast, including Texas, with a fair amount of detail in the interior. A nearly flawless wide margin example. A third sheet, covering the West Indies, was also published, but is not present in this example.

Reference
Lowery 648n. Sellers & Van Ee, Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies 1750-1789, 1703.
Rigobert Bonne Biography

Rigobert Bonne (1727-1794) was an influential French cartographer of the late-eighteenth century. Born in the Lorraine region of France, Bonne came to Paris to study and practice cartography. He was a skilled cartographer and hydrographer and succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Royal Hydrographer at the Depot de la Marine in 1773. He published many charts for the Depot, including some of those for the Atlas Maritime of 1762. In addition to his work at the Depot, he is  best known for his work on the maps of the Atlas Encyclopedique (1788) which he did with Nicholas Desmarest. He also made the maps for the Abbe Raynals’ famous Atlas de Toutes Les Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre (1780).

More than his individual works, Bonne is also important for the history of cartography because of the larger trends exemplified by his work. In Bonne’s maps, it is possible to see the decisive shift from the elaborate decorations of the seventeenth century and the less ornate, yet still prominent embellishments of the early to mid-eighteenth century. By contrast, Bonne’s work was simple, unadorned, and practical. This aesthetic shift, and the detail and precision of his geography, make Bonne an important figure in mapping history.