Carthaginian North Africa with Inset of the Environs of Carthage, 1818

An original copper engraved map, uncolored, of the western and central Mediterranean as far as Carthaginian power reached. Espagne with Carthage la Neuve, the Isles Baleares, Sardaigne and Sicile lie to the north; along the African shore are Mauritanie, Numidie with Cirta, Hippo Zarytus, Utique and Carthage, and the coast runs east past the Petite Syrte to La Grande Syrte. A ruled inset at lower left, titled Les Environs de Carthage exprimés plus en détail, enlarges the city with Byrsa, Tunis, the Bagradas river and Cap Bon.

The cartouche at right reads Carte de la Partie de l'Afrique ou les Carthaginois ont étendu leur domination, dressée pour l'intelligence de l'Histoire ancienne de Rollin; par d'Anville, Géographe ord.re du Roi. The plate is numbered Pl. 3. above the upper right corner. Three scale bars are captioned Milles des Romains, évalués 755 Toises, Stades des Grecs, dont 8 font un Mille and Lieues Françaises, de 3000 Pas Géométriq.s; the inset has its own bars for Milles Rom. and Stades Grecs. No engraver is named on the sheet.

The plate comes from the Atlas de Géographie Ancienne, published in Paris in 1818 by Ledoux et Tenré and printed by Didot le jeune to accompany the works of Charles Rollin (1661 to 1741), the French historian whose Histoire ancienne the map was drawn to illustrate. The title page states that the atlas was engraved after the original maps of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697 to 1782). Its table of plates carries a foreword signed by Ambroise Tardieu, géographe-graveur, who writes that the maps were copied with religious fidelity and that, charged with reviewing the proofs, he had only negligences and defects of execution to correct. Carthage was the Phoenician city on the coast of present day Tunisia.

This is an original antique map, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.