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Description

A Rare Plan of Paris Published by A Female Map Publisher

Very rare plan of Paris, based upon the 9 sheet plan of Paris created by Albert Jouvin de Rochefort in 1672-75.

The present map includes the imprint of "chez De Fer dans l'Isle du Palais sur le quay de l'Oroge a la Sphere," which in 1676 would be Genevieve De Fer.

De Fer's map is the first reduced size example of De Fer's monumental work.  The plan includes the coat of arms of the dedicatee Simon Arnaud Chevalier Seigneur de Pompone and Ministre et Secretaire d'Estat.  At the top right, the arms of France and Paris are supported by the symbolic figure of Lutetia.  At the bottom left is a map of the surroundings of Paris, and on the right a street table for the city and environs.

This is one of the first plans to present Paris in a North-South axis, with the Seine shown crossing the map horizontally. 

Albert Jouvin de Rochefort (1640-1710) was a French cartographer who also served from 1675-1702 as Treasurer to Louis XIV of France. His nine-panel map of Paris, entitled Paris et ses Environs, was published in 1672-1675. 

Rarity

The plan is extreme rare. This is the first example of the map we have seen.  We were not able to trace other examples of the first state of the map at auction or in dealer records.

OCLC locates examples of the 1676 edition at the British Library, Bibliotheque National de France and Swedish National Library.  The Bavarian State Library holds an example which it dates to 1674, but this would seem to be an error.

A new edition published by Nicolas de Fer in 1697. 

Condition Description
Expertly restored. Right edge with facsimile image from top to bottom.
Geneviève De Fer Biography

Geneviève De Fer was the wife of Antoine de Fer and mother of Nicolas De Fer.

Genevieve took over the map published business of Antoine de Fer, following his death in June 1673. 

She passed it and the atelier then located at Quai de L'Horloge, to Nicolas in 1687. Nicolas grew the firm to one of the largest and most successful of the Parisian mapsellers and printers by the early 18th Century, producing town plans, atlases, wall maps, and more than 600 sheet maps.

 De Fer became the official geographer for The King of Spain in 1720. Two of his sons-in-law, Guillaume Danet and Jaques-François Bénard, continued the company after de Fer's death on October 25, 1720 until about 1760.