Mallorca, Menorca & Ibiza Map 1823 Atlas Print - Palma, Mahón, Ibiza Town

Franz Ludwig Güssefeld's Atlas von Spanien, published in 1823 and based largely on the drawings of Tomás López, is the source of this Carte des Isles de Maiorque, Minorque et Yvice, the chart of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza after the French hydrographer Bellin, with a Plan du Port et de la Ville de Mahon. The catalog estimates the date of the underlying chart at 1756 and credits Christoph Fembo and the Homann heirs of Nuremberg as publishers. The folding sheet measures 56 by 41 centimeters at a scale of 1:470,000 and is lettered in French, with the title in an oval cartouche, a compass rose and an inset plan of the port and town of Mahon.

The catalog explains that the 1823 edition was probably issued in response to the French invasion of Spain, the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, in which the atlas's first owner, Marshal Oudinot, commanded the first of five army corps. The atlas was housed in two contemporary blue paper boxes, and the catalog says only one example of the 1823 edition is recorded. Mahon, on Menorca, is the island's principal harbor, and the plan of its port and town shows why it mattered to naval powers, since Britain held Menorca for much of the eighteenth century and France took it in 1756 at the start of the Seven Years' War. Palma, the capital of Mallorca, and the town of Ibiza on its own island complete the Balearic group.

A sailor with Mediterranean memories, a family with roots in the Balearic Islands, or a collector of military cartography will find a distinguished gift here, and the Napoleonic-era provenance adds a story for the occasion. TheMapVault's other Spain and Portugal sheets show the whole peninsula, whereas this folding sheet concentrates on three islands and the harbor of Mahon at the large scale of 1:470,000. 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.