DE L’ ISLE (INSULANUS), GUILLAUME: BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES
Inventory number 423
Original title: Imperii Orientalis et Circumjacentium Regionum
Publishing year: 1715
Place of publishing and publisher: Paris
Format: 63,5 x 74 cm
Technique: Copper engraving with coloured boundaries
The map shows the Byzantine Empire, but it has a larger format and shows a wider area. It shows the surroundings of the Byzantine Empire, especially in the north, where danger was expected. The map, which is also found in the book "Historia Byzantina ...". It was also published in the atlas of de L'Isle and its heirs, so in the lower left corner we find the name of Philippe Buache, cartographer who partnered with the widow of de L'Isle in 1726. Neither the map shows traces of overlapping, so it is more likely to originate from an atlas than from du Cange's book.
DE L’ ISLE (INSULANUS), GUILLAUME
DE L’ ISLE (INSULANUS), GUILLAUME (1675-1726), a French geographer and cartographer, a student of Cassini who was known as the father of modern geography. Member of L’Academie Royale des Sciences a Paris from 1702, the official royal geographer (Premier Géographe du Roy) from 1718, he began creating the World map & continents (meaning the four known continents at the time) in 1700. He made globuses and world maps, totalling to over a hundred maps and atlases. His Atlas Nouveau was published posthumously (1730), later seeing editions in other languages, too, for example Italian in the 1740s. The familiy business was succeeded by his widow with the partner Philipp Buach. His older brother JOSEPH NICOLAS L’ISLE (1688-1768) was also a student of Cassini, educated at College Mazarin. He was an astronomer and cartographer, and made a map of Russia during his service there (Sankt-Peterburg). He also founded the Academy of Science in Russia.
