Louis Brion de la Tour (1743 – 1803) & Louis Charles Desnos (1725 – 1805)
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“. He did an important part of his work in cooperation with Louis Charles Desnos. Little is known about his life.
Louis Charles Desnos was a bookseller, geographical engineer and manufacturer of mapping instruments and globes which he sold in his shop in Paris. He held the post of „Royal Globemaker“ with the King of Denmark, Christian VII. Little is known about his life.
Map details
La Suede et la Norwege Avec l‘Islande, divisee par Provinces, et sous deux Metropoles Eclesiastiques …
Engraved by Brion de la Tour this map was published by Desnos in „The Atlas General, Civic, Ecclesiastique et Militaire …“ of 1766.
The attractive and finely engraved map shows Scandinavia, the Baltic and the eastern part of Russia, with an inset map of Iceland in the upper left corner. It is embellished with a title ornate cartouche in the lower right corner and a decorative floral border with the royal coat of arms.The whole map has only a few place-names; this also applies to Iceland.
„Islande“ is printed across the depiction of the country which is the Knoff type. Only „Mont Hekla Volcan“, the bishoprics Skalholt and Holar as well as „Lac Myvatn“ are mentioned. The Arctic Circle is marked nearly to perfection.
Underneath the map of Iceland there is the hint („Echelle“) regarding the time change of two hours between Iceland and Sweden/Norway. In the lower left corner the information is given that Norway and Iceland are „dependances“ of Denmark.
