France Map 1852 Provinces Atlas Print - Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes, Rouen

Maison Basset of 33 rue de Seine, Paris, published this France par Provinces in 1852 in the Géographie Universelle, an illustrated atlas of elementary geography with maps by J. G. Barbie du Bocage, A. Vuillemin, J. B. Charle, V. Levasseur, T. Duvotenay, H. Dufour and F. E. George, revised in 1852 by George. Barbie du Bocage was the son of J. D. Barbie du Bocage, the geographer linked to the well-known Voyage d'Anacharsis, and the sheet is in full hand-painted color with an ornamental border and an inset of Paris in 1789. It measures 32 by 24 centimeters at 1:5,500,000, and it was issued in 1852, the year Louis-Napoléon, president of the Republic, became Emperor Napoleon III.

The map shows France as it was before 1789, divided into the old provinces rather than the departments of the Revolution, each with its own color. Brittany, Normandy and Burgundy stand out among them as regions with strong identities, and Provence, Languedoc and Gascony run along the south. The inset of Paris in 1789 shows the city as it was when the Revolution began, a small capital inside its walls. Rennes was the capital of Brittany, Rouen the capital of Normandy, and Lyon and Marseille already the second and port cities of the kingdom. The two views, province and capital, look back from the Second Empire to the world that the Revolution ended.

A French family proud of its Breton, Norman or Burgundian roots, a student of the old regime, or a collector of French school atlases will find a lively gift here. TheMapVault's 1872 and 1865 Stanford maps also show France by province, but they are London steel engravings with no pictorial ornament, and the 1886 Drioux and Leroy sheet shows the thirty-two governments; this Basset map is the French hand-painted version, with a decorated border and an inset of Paris on the eve of the Revolution. 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.