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Large, engraved map of the Rhine River basin, produced in Amsterdam by Pierre Mortier after a design originally conceived by Nicolas Sanson for the Dauphin of France. Extending from the Alpine sources to the river’s mouth in the Zuyderzee, the map traces the full course of the Rhine while delineating the major political and ecclesiastical jurisdictions along its route.
This plate was adapted from Sanson’s mid-17th-century cartography but significantly enlarged by Mortier for inclusion in his Atlas Nouveau. While Sanson’s original was a landmark in regional river mapping, Mortier’s edition reworks it on a more monumental scale, allowing for the inclusion of surrounding regions including the upper Danube, the lower Meuse, and small parts of northern Italy. The result is both a hydrographic study and a political tableau. Sovereign entities, bishoprics, duchies, and free cities are each distinguished in separate hues, reflecting the fragmented territorial structure of the Holy Roman Empire and the neighboring French frontier.
The map’s visual centerpiece is its grand cartouche at upper right, which retains the dedication to the Dauphin and is framed by allegorical river figures and armorial emblems, even as it bears the imprint of Mortier in Amsterdam, a telling reflection of Dutch commercial appropriation of French cartography. A second cartouche at bottom left provides six comparative scales, calibrated to the principal lineal measures of France, Germany, and the Low Countries.
Pierre, or Pieter, Mortier (1661-1711) was a Dutch engraver, son of a French refugee. He was born in Leiden. In 1690 he was granted a privilege to publish French maps in Dutch lands. In 1693 he released the first and accompanying volume of the Neptune Francois. The third followed in 1700. His son, Cornelis (1699-1783), would partner with Johannes Covens I, creating one of the most important map publishing companies of the eighteenth century.
