Denmark Map 1658 Sanson Royaume de Danemarq Print - Denmark, Copenhagen, Jutland, Zealand

This fine double-page engraved map of Denmark and neighboring regions of Scandinavia, titled Royaume de Danemarq, was made by Nicolas Sanson and published in Paris in 1658. The date is part of its title, and it comes from the Cartes generales de toutes les parties du monde, the great atlas that Sanson published with the print publisher Pierre Mariette in the same year. The sheet shows the kingdom and its surroundings in the clear and orderly manner of the French school of cartography, with the coasts, the islands and the divisions of the land set out on the wide spread of two pages. The sheet is a fine early example of the French atlas map, and it shows the clear style that made Sanson's work a model for other publishers.

Nicolas Sanson lived from 1600 to 1667 and is sometimes called Sanson d'Abbeville. He was the most important French cartographer of the seventeenth century, and Tooley called him the founder of the French school of cartography. He began making maps in the late 1620s and in the 1630s was working with Melchior Tavernier, and he produced over 300 maps over the course of his career. After his death his son Guillaume carried on the business in partnership with Alexis Hubert Jaillot, and Guillaume became an important French mapmaker in his own right.

A collector of French cartography, a family with roots in Denmark, or a reader of seventeenth-century history will find a distinguished gift here. TheMapVault's Bellin chart of 1764 shows the kingdom from the French navy's point of view, whereas this earlier Sanson sheet gives the land itself. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print. It would suit a study, a hall or a library.