The Turgot map of Paris () is a highly accurate and detailed map of the city of Paris, France, as it existed in the 1730s. The map was commissioned by Parisian municipality chief

Michel-Étienne Turgot Michel-Étienne Turgot (; ; 9 June 1690 in Paris – 1 February 1751 in Paris) was ''prévôt des marchands de Paris'' ("Master of the merchants of Paris", i.e. Mayor of Paris) from 1729 to 1740. His name is associated with one of the most famo ...

, drawn up by surveyor Louis Bretez, and engraved by Claude Lucas.

Description

The Turgot map was published in 1739 as an atlas of twenty non-overlapping sectional bird's-eye-view maps (at a scale of approximately 1:400) in

isometric perspective Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings. It is an axonometric projection in which the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened and t ...

toward the southeast. Additionally, there is one simplified general map with a four-by-five grid showing the layout of the twenty sectional maps. The atlas covers an area approximately corresponding to the first eleven of the modern-day

arrondissements of Paris The Paris, City of Paris is divided into twenty ''Municipal arrondissements of France, arrondissements municipaux'', administrative districts, referred to as ''arrondissements'' (). These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements ...

. Each sectional map consists of double-facing sheets and is wide; the first row is high, while the remaining rows are high. The assembled map is in height and in width. Turgot's map has been described as "the first all-comprising graphical inventory of the capital, down to the last orchard and tree, detailing every house and naming even the most modest cul-de-sac".

History

In 1734,

, the chief of the municipality of Paris as provost of the city's merchants, decided to promote the reputation of Paris for Parisian, provincial, and foreign elites by commissioning a new map of the city. He asked Louis Bretez, a member of the

Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

(Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) and professor of perspective, to draw up a map of Paris and its suburbs. By contract, Turgot requested a very faithful reproduction with great accuracy. Bretez was allowed to enter mansions, houses and gardens to take measurements and draw pictures, and worked on the project from 1734 to 1736. The prevailing trend in the 18th century was to abandon portraits of cities (inherited from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

) for a more technical and mathematical geometric plan. The Turgot map goes against this trend by adopting the technique of : two buildings of the same size are represented by two equally sized depictions, regardless of the distance between the buildings. Claude Lucas, engraver to the Royal Academy of Sciences, created the twenty-one individual sheets in 1736. The map was published in 1739, and the prints were bound in volumes offered to King

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

, members of the Academy, and the municipality of Paris. Additional copies were to serve as representations of France to foreigners. The twenty-one original engraved brass plates are kept by the

chalcography Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an inta ...

at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, where they are still used for printing, employing similar techniques to those used in the 18th century.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

* Turgot map of Paris (Kyoto University Library) at Wikimedia Commons
Turgot's Plan de Paris from David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Zoomable super high resolution scan (82,079 × 65,656 pixels) * ''Plan de Paris, commencé l'anneé 1734 : dessiné et gravé sous les ordres de Messire Michel Étienne Turgot, Marquis de Sousmons'' () at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...