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Description

Rare map of the area around the Amboise River between Tour and Orleans. This work originally appeared in the rare work by Maurice Bouguereau, Le Theatre Francoys, which is the first national atlas of France.

Detail on the map is extensive, particularly in the number of towns and cities shown. Forests are shown pictorially. Many rivers and streams are depicted.

Unlike most other maps in Le Theatre Francoys, this map is not copied from any previous work, and, instead, it is based on original surveys. This makes it one of the earliest known maps of the region.

In addition to an authorship statement, two Latin text boxes appear on the map. The first reads:

Mathematicorum solertia compertum est, rotoe carpenti revolutionibus numeratis. partem cinguli terrae trecentesimam sexagesimam leucas 25 complecti, id quod hac locorum descriptione Verissimum deprehendimus. Cum enim ex incolarum sermoni-bus, oppidis singulis & paraeciis interualla constituissemus, et partes tum longit tum latitu-dinis margini attexuissemus initio Blesis sumto, quae partibus 47 32 dissitae sunt ab aequatore reperta est Biturigum civitas in ea latitudine quam artificum tabulae geographicae produnt Similiter & Carnutum Constabit igitur ciculus orbis terre leucis gallicis 9000 dimeties 2363 7/11 Superficies 25772743

The second text box reads:

Le Blaisois contient en longitude d'occident en Orient depuis S. Ouin iusques a Brinon 25 lieues en latitude de l'equateur vers le nord depuis Chasteauroux iusques a Rabestan 40 lieues.

Le Theatre Francoys

This very rare volume is understood to be the first national atlas of France. Published in Tours during the French king's exile from Paris, this work reunites maps of northern and central France.

Many of the maps in the volume are copied from earlier Ortelius and Mercator sources, although some, particularly in the region around Tours, are original maps. These maps would be reused by later authors, including Hondius, Blaeu, and Jansson. All the maps in the text are engraved by Tavernier.

The volume suffered from a lack of spatial completeness, with much of the south of France lacking any coverage. While Bouguereau put a plea for more maps in his introduction, subsequent, more complete editions of this work would not be published until well into the 17th century. The first complete edition would appear in 1642 under the name Theatre Geographique due Royaume de France.