Guillaume Delisle

Guillaume Delisle (Paris 1675 to 1726), pupil of Cassini and son of the geographer Claude Delisle, reformed the map of the world at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He discarded the inherited outlines and rebuilt the continents from astronomical observations and the reports of travellers, correcting the length of the Mediterranean, removing the island of California and giving the Mississippi its true course. His maps of 1700 to 1722 were copied throughout Europe, in Amsterdam by Covens and Mortier and Chatelain, in Nuremberg by Homann. In 1718 he was named Premier Géographe du Roi, the first to hold the title.

The early states of Delisle's maps carry his address in the Rue des Canettes; after 1707 he worked on the Quai de l'Horloge. The states and the later editions by Buache and Dezauche are well documented.

Our collection contains Delisle's South America of 1700 in its first state and maps derived from his work.