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The Rhine River Region During The War of Spanish Succession
Scarce English map of the course of the Rhine River, based upon the cartographic work of famed French mapmaker Guillaume De L'Isle.
The map illustrates the Theater of War during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). This war was primarily fought to prevent the union of the French and Spanish thrones under the Bourbon family, which would have upset the balance of power in Europe. The Rhine served as a crucial geographical theater for the conflict, with several battles occurring along its banks as Allied forces, including those from Austria, England, and the Dutch Republic, clashed with French troops. The conflict brought significant military activity to the Rhine region, impacting the local populace and altering the political landscape.
States of the Map and Rarity
The map was issued in two forms, either as a two sheet map extending the Strasbourg or a three sheet map extending to Basle.
Both are scarce to rare on the market.
Guillaume De L'Isle (1675-1726) is probably the greatest figure in French cartography. Having learned geography from his father Claude, by the age of eight or nine he could draw maps to demonstrate ancient history. He studied mathematics and astronomy under Cassini, from whom he received a superb grounding in scientific cartography—the hallmark of his work. His first atlas was published in ca. 1700. In 1702 he was elected a member of the Academie Royale des Sciences and in 1718 he became Premier Geographe du Roi.
De L'Isle's work was important as marking a transition from the maps of the Dutch school, which were highly decorative and artistically-orientated, to a more scientific approach. He reduced the importance given to the decorative elements in maps, and emphasized the scientific base on which they were constructed. His maps of the newly explored parts of the world reflect the most up-to-date information available and did not contain fanciful detail in the absence of solid information. It can be fairly said that he was truly the father of the modern school of cartography at the commercial level.
De L’Isle also played a prominent part in the recalculation of latitude and longitude, based on the most recent celestial observations. His major contribution was in collating and incorporating this latitudinal and longitudinal information in his maps, setting a new standard of accuracy, quickly followed by many of his contemporaries. Guillaume De L’Isle’s work was widely copied by other mapmakers of the period, including Chatelain, Covens & Mortier, and Albrizzi.
