There is some debate as to the identity of the compiler of the atlas, described only as Mr. In addition, Chatelain's title pages are attractively designed, as are the maps he uses. Several plates from the work are particularly renowned, especially Chatelain's fascinating map of the Pacific and the Americas, which shows the Island of California, Korea, Japan, and many other places in intriguing detail alongside extensive text and annotations. Chatelain did not neglect European subjects, describing them in detail as well. His plates and text describe the way of life in these faraway lands, with parts of the work devoted to the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Mongolia, Indonesia, and much more. Other plates were based on the most extensive contemporary travel accounts, including those of Dapper, Chardin, de Bruyn, and Le Hay.Ī major focus of the work regards newly colonized lands, which wealthy Europeans were eager to learn more about. Many of the maps Chatelain uses were based on the work of the French cartographer, Guillaume de L'Isle. Several volumes would be reprinted until 1739. Particularly focused on geography, Chatelain also touched on cosmography, geography, history, chronology, genealogy, heraldry, and much more. Henri Abraham Chatelain first published his Atlas Historique in seven volumes from 1705 to 1720, targeted at an audience eager for all types of information. Seeing as modern pictorial maps tend to be produced for tourists, as was this one, this similarity perhaps becomes less surprising and provides an insight into how maps might best convey information. While there are some obvious stylistic differences that have evolved over time, for example the handwriting or the engraving of the river, the low-angled viewpoint and style of showing important individual buildings is strikingly modern. The differences between this map and a typical twentieth-century pictorial map are surprisingly slim, and one almost expects to find advertisements for "the best pizzeria in town" on the verso. It was against this backdrop that the present map was produced. Samuel Johnson's quote, "A man who hath not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see." Travelers were eager to have souvenirs of their travels, which created both large markets in the trades of both antiquities and maps. Italy and Rome were considered to be the highlight of any Tour, epitomized by Dr. While some travel, especially religious, had always occurred throughout Europe, this map was published just when the Grand Tour was starting to become a rite of passage. While new landmarks have been built up over time, and other monuments destroyed, much of the eternal city remains the same and a twenty-first-century tourist using this map would be able to plan a successful trip to the city. The ingenious grid system would have helped them locate these landmarks more easily. They could have also used this work to decide which day trips they might have wanted to take from the city using the inset of the surrounding countryside, or decided what artworks they wanted to visit. These voyageurs would have been able to refer to this map in order to gain a better insight into the city, deciding which sights they would have wanted to visit. The church insets might have informed them as to which best-suited their tastes. This map was explicitly targeted at people visiting the city from afar. Text at the bottom names all the major artworks that can be found in the city, alongside their location and their authorship. Another inset shows the surrounding region from the Mediterranean to the edge of the Apennines, with towns and rivers included. The most important buildings are shown in much greater detail in the insets. Shown are tiny chapels, tall monuments, extensive fortresses, detailed basilicas, and much more, and the representation of these structures is fairly accurate. Nearly three hundred structures are shown individually out of three hundred and twelve indexed sights. This work originates from Chatelain's monumental seven-volume Atlas Historique, one of the most famous and prolific works of the early 18th century. Other insets as well as text add further information to the work. A key identifies a number of buildings, which are shown on the map.
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