Louis Brion de la Tour (1743 – 1803) & Louis Charles Desnos (1725 – 1805)
Louis Brion de la Tour was a French geographer and engraver. His official title was „Ingenieur Geographe du Roi“. Little is known about his life which passed in scientific work. However, what is known us that he collaborated with Louis Charles Desnos for whom he engraved maps.
Louis Charles Desnos was a bookseller, geographical engineer and manufacturer of mapping instruments and globes which he sold them in his shop in Paris. He held the post of „Royal Globemaker“ with the King of Denmark, Christian VII.
Map details
This attractive and finely engraved map was published by Desnos in the „Atlas General et Elementaire pour l‘Etude de la Geographie et l‘Histoire moderne“ of 1766.
Surrounding the map which is flanked by columns on both sides is an elaborate border that shows two scenes of children studying geography and science. The French text in the columns contains geographical information about the area. Map and border were printed from two separate plates with the text on glued down sheets at the time of publication.
The decorative title cartouche is placed in the lower right corner. The map shows Scandinavia, the Baltic and the eastern part of Russia, with an inset map of Iceland which is of the Knoff type in the upper left corner.
„Islande“ is printed across the depiction of the country which is without detailed information. In the interior of the country only the names Skalholt, Holar, Lake Myvatn and „Mont Hekla Volcan“ are presented. The Arctic Circle is marked nearly correctly.
Underneath the map of Iceland there is distance scale („Echelle“). In the lower left corner of the map the information is given that Norway and Iceland are “dependances“ of Denmark.
