Nice example of the Atlas Moderne, published in Paris in 1787 by Jean Lattre.
Typically credited to French Royal Geographer Rigobert Bonne, this map finds its roots in 1762, in the Atlas Moderne, published by Jean Janvier. Over the next several decades, the map would be issued with updated maps bearing the imprints of Jean Janvier, Rigobert Bonne, Giovanni Antonio Rizzi-Zannoni and Jean Lattre, becoming one of the most successful commercial atlases published in France in the second half of the 18th Century, along with the Atlas Universel published by the Robert De Vaugondy family.
The 1787 edition includes an engraved decorative title page by Prevost after Monet, an engraved "Advertisement" leaf, and an engraved "Table des cartes contenues" followed by the 36 maps (all double page), including a "Sphère de Ptolomée" with wind roses (plate No. c.); a world map; 6 maps of the continents (of which 3 of the Americas); 21 maps related to European countries; 5 to Asia, Africa or the Gulf of Mexico; and 2 maps of the regions of the Holy Land. No. 25 skipped in the numbering of the maps per the Table des Cartes, and apparently no map no. 25 was ever issued.
The map of North America, with its depiction of the Sea of the West, is one of the best known and enduring of all maps to show this depiction. Present day Southwestern United States, including Texas, is labeled Nouveau Mexique.
Rigobert Bonne (1727-1794) was an influential French cartographer of the late-eighteenth century. Born in the Lorraine region of France, Bonne came to Paris to study and practice cartography. He was a skilled cartographer and hydrographer and succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as Royal Hydrographer at the Depot de la Marine in 1773. He published many charts for the Depot, including some of those for the Atlas Maritime of 1762. In addition to his work at the Depot, he is best known for his work on the maps of the Atlas Encyclopedique (1788) which he did with Nicholas Desmarest. He also made the maps for the Abbe Raynals’ famous Atlas de Toutes Les Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre (1780).
More than his individual works, Bonne is also important for the history of cartography because of the larger trends exemplified by his work. In Bonne’s maps, it is possible to see the decisive shift from the elaborate decorations of the seventeenth century and the less ornate, yet still prominent embellishments of the early to mid-eighteenth century. By contrast, Bonne’s work was simple, unadorned, and practical. This aesthetic shift, and the detail and precision of his geography, make Bonne an important figure in mapping history.
Jean Lattré (fl. 1743-1793) was a Parisian bookseller and engraver who published many maps, plans, globes, and atlases. He worked closely with other important French cartographers, including Janvier, Bonne, and Delamarche, as well as other European mapmakers, such as William Faden, Santini, and Zannoni. Lattré is also interesting due to his propensity to bring suits against those who copied his work; plagiarism was common practice in eighteenth-century cartography and mapmakers struggled to maintain proprietary maps and information.