Carte de l'Espagne dressée par Guillaume Delisle sur la description de Rodrigo Mendez Sylva ...
Philippe Buache's edition of Delisle's map of Spain and Portugal.
This map depicts the Iberian Peninsula, stretching from Gascony in southern France in the north to North Africa in the south. It shows the states and kingdoms of this region, including: Portugal, Galicia, New and Old Castile, Andalusia, Granada, Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera). The map features remarkable coastal and inland detail, indicating capes, gulfs, straits, towns, villages, rivers... It is adorned with a large decorative title cartouche.
This map was first published by Guillaume Delisle, based on notes by Rodrigo Mendez Sylva and earlier handwritten and printed maps. This example is the 1789 edition, enlarged and corrected by his son-in-law Philippe Buache in 1789.
Guillaume Delisle (de l'Isle) (1675-1726), is one of the greatest figures of French cartography. The eldest son and pupil of the historian and geographer Claude Delisle, he entered the Academy of Sciences in 1702 to study with the astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini. He taught geography to the young Louis XV and was the first to receive the title of Premier Géographe du Roi in 1718. Delisle is considered to be at the origin of modern cartography. One of Delisle's main contributions was to make a transition from the decorative maps of the Dutch school to a more scientific approach. He removed the ornamental elements and based his cartography on all available information. Throughout his life he constantly updated his collection of over 100 maps to reflect new discoveries. Thus, his maps give a precise overview of the state of geographic knowledge at the time. Delisle’s was the first to correct the longitudes of America, to discard the well-established fallacy of California as an island, to delineate the Mississippi Valley correctly and to introduce many new name places.
Martin & Martin, Maps of Texas, pl. 19, pp. 98-9 ; Schwartz/ Ehrenberg, pp. 140-41, (illus.) 146; Cumming, Southeast, no. 170. ; Kohl,Lowery Collection, p. 230