The career of the de Vaugondy family is superbly laid out by Mary Sponberg Pedley in her book ‘Bel et Utile’. Little is known of Gilles’ education, but he signed his marriage document in 1719 as a ‘geographe’. In 1723 he witnessed a document as a ‘professeur en mathematiques’. In 1731 he was fortunate to receive one-third of the business of the Sanson family. Nicolas Sanson and his descendants ran the most dominant map publishing business in Paris from the middle of the seventeenth century. Both of Nicolas’ sons, Guillaume and Adrien, died childless and the business passed to a nephew, Pierre Moullart (d.1730) who later added Sanson to his name. He too died childless but wishing the family business to continue he left it to three friends. Jacques Simon Perrier, a priest, Jean Fremont, a lawyer, and a professor of Mathematics, Gilles Robert de Vaugondy. Perrier sold his shares soon after two his two partners. The remaining partnership continued until Fremont’s death in 1751. It is not known how well they knew each other. It was enough to launch his career. By 1734 he was made ‘Geographe du Roi’.

The atlas was published in the same year as the slightly larger format and rarer ‘Atlas Moderne’ by Jean Lattre and Thomas Herissant. As Pedley described, it was an opportune time as the Jesuits were expelled from France the same year, 1762. They had been largely responsible for providing geographical education. The world map is repeated three times, each bears population thematically coloured according to religion, skin colour, and facial type. A similar situation involves the map of the Holy Land where one extra map is included. The map of ‘Canada, Louisiane …’ includes an inset displaying a large Sea of the West. Provenance: manuscript of ‘Bruissau’ on verso of the title; Dimitri Kronis 2012; private French collection. Pedley (1992) pp. 97-102 & 231-3; Shirley (2004) Robv 2a (1778 edition only); Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).