Nicolas Lenglet du Fresnoy (1674 – 1755)
was a French scholar, historian, geographer, philosopher and bibliographer of alchemy. Rather early in his life he occupied himself only of his scholarly work. His love of independence and his opposition to royal censors earned him, under Louis XV, five periods of imprisoning in the notorious Bastille. In his books he covered a wide range of fields.
Map details
This uncommon map is taken from „Methode pour Etudier la Geographie“, published by Rollin and de Bure in Paris in 1736.
A simple title cartouche is in the lower right corner. The map shows Scandinavia, the Baltic, „Moscovie“, the Northern part of Germany Iceland, the Orkney, Shetland and Faroe Islands, England and Scotland, and Iceland. It includes the Arctic Circle which is running too far south.
In the interior of Iceland only two places are named: „Skalholt and „M Hele“ (?) which probably is the volcano Hekla. Remarkable is the text underneath the map of Iceland:
„I. d‘Islande apartment au Roy de Danemark“ (Iceland is the property of the King of Denmark). Further down are two distance scales.
