Spain - Map of Spain and Portugal; Mentelle (Edme) & Chanlaire (Pierre-Gilles). - Carte D’espagne Et De Portugal En Neuf Feuilles. Revue, corrigée et augmentée. - 1821-1850

Mentelle (Edme) & Chanlaire (Pierre-Gilles).
map of Spain and Portugal in nine panels. Revised, corrected and enlarged.
Paris, J.-B. Delaval, successor of P.-G. Chanlaire, rue Geoffroy-Langevin, No. 7, 1822.

Monumental copper engraving map, 98 × 131 cm, composed of nine sheets joined together, cut into panels and mounted on antique canvas, with territorial boundaries delicately enhanced with period watercolor washes. Preserved in its original canvas, bearing a fine octagonal engraved label by J. Goujon, cartographer of the Royal Mail, rue du Bac, No. 6, in Paris, with a special title printed “Espagne et Portugal.” Without outer case.

Important revised, corrected and enlarged edition of the large general map of the Iberian Peninsula established by the geographers Edme Mentelle (1730-1815), member of the Institute, and Pierre-Gilles Chanlaire (1758-1817), author of the Atlas national. A remarkable achievement of early 19th-century French cartography, offering a particularly detailed depiction of Spain and Portugal at the end of the Ancien Régime and before the major administrative reorganizations of the 19th century.

The engraving, of remarkable finesse, accurately renders the hydrographic network, roads and communications, towns, boroughs and villages, boundaries and territorial divisions. The mountainous relief, especially developed in the Pyrenees, the Iberian Cordilleras and the Sierra Nevada, is depicted by an elaborated system of hachures and shaded profiles, giving a striking impression of volume. The boundaries of the former kingdoms and provinces are distinguished by color highlights.

The map also includes the Balearic Islands — Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera —, a portion of the coasts of Morocco and Algeria, as well as two depictions of the Strait of Gibraltar, including an enlarged insert. The whole is accompanied by a legend of territorial divisions and several scales of distance.

Precious testimony to the commercial diffusion of grand geographic maps during the Restoration.

Complete copy, in old colors well preserved, showing fine engraving clarity. Some browning and smudges, signs of handling along the folds, small wear at the title area and old handwritten inscription. Canvas rubbed, with label preserved.