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Schoolgirl Double-Hemisphere Map of the World

Fantastic manuscript Mappe Monde, dating from the early 19th century and showing the five then-known continents in a carefully-drawn manner. The map is particularly notable for its colors, shades (particularly the green in the Americas, the red in the Pacific, and the blue in Africa) that are extremely unusual to see in a hand-colored map yet are extremely attractive.

This map appeared to have been executed by a student named Rosine Rondeau, who was under the tutelage of a Ms. Lemoine. This work is cited as conducted at "Azay," taken to be Azay-le-Rideau, just southwest of Tours in central France.

The map was fully drawn in pen and ink, with the outlines of the major continents highlighted in color. The highly ornate title and the border is impressively conducted for a hand-drawn map. The outside border, past the neatline, appears to have been produced using a stamp dipped in a faint wash color.

French mappemondes were common in the first half of the 19th century, which means that there was no shortage of possible sources for this cartography. The most similar engraving we could locate was a "Mappe-Monde ou Carte Generale du Globe Terrestre," executed by Delamarche in 1820, for which the vast majority of place names are identical. In particular, the inclusion and path of a colored "Division Oceanique," which separates the lands of the Pacific Ocean (Oceania) from the other continents appear to be a Delamarche hallmark. Still, several minor differences appear between the two maps, which may be due to oversight or to the use of a slightly different edition. In particular, in the Southern Ocean, the New Shetlands, Orcadies, and the Terre de l'Aurore all appear, which are all given different names in the Delamarche map.

The map represents a fascinating pedagogical tool, used at a time when tutors prioritized geographical knowledge at the same level as other disciplines. As said by the governess in Murder on the Orient Express (from the lesser film adaptation): 

I always begin them with geography and monster them until the have the world down cold. They may get lost in math; but, I'll be damned if they don't know where they are.