France Map 1815 Ancient Gaul Classical Atlas Print - Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Brussels

Robert Wilkinson of 125 Fenchurch Street, London, drew this Gallia Antiqua for his Atlas Classica, a collection of maps of the countries mentioned by ancient authors, sacred and profane, which was first issued in 1797 and printed again in 1823, with T. Bourne credited as engraver on the contents page. The catalog calls it the source of the American classical atlases, so the Latin names on this sheet were handed down into school and college atlases across the Atlantic. This is a 29 by 23 centimeter map at 1:5,000,000 in full hand-painted color, with relief shown by hachures and sketches, and it dates from 1815, the year of Waterloo, when Europe turned from war to study of the ancient landscape.

The map follows the Roman provinces of Gaul as listed in the Notitia Imperii, and its Latin labels name Aquitania, Lugdunensis and Belgica, each tinted separately. Aquitania lay between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, Lugdunensis took its name from Lugdunum, today's Lyon, and Belgica took its name from the Belgae of the north. An inset at the upper right shows the Batavorum Insulae, the Island of the Batavi in the Rhine delta, home of the tribe whose cavalry served Rome. The Seine, the Loire, the Rhône and the Rhine were the roads and frontiers of the province, and the sheet was drawn to help a reader of Caesar or Tacitus follow them. Together these labels show how Rome divided one land into named provinces.

A teacher of Latin, a student of Roman history, or a family with roots in Lyon, Brussels or the Netherlands will find a scholarly gift here, whether for a graduation or a study wall. TheMapVault's 1892 map of Roman Gaul, from the French Nouvel Atlas Illustré, is a Paris-made sheet with an inset of Lutèce, whereas this Wilkinson map is the London scholar's version, in Latin, hand-painted, and carrying the Batavian inset that shows the Roman frontier on the Rhine. 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.