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.

This atlas was first published in 1762, 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. Didier’s wife became mentally unwell, and he was forced to sell the business in 1778 to Jean Baptiste Fortin (1740-1817), a globe maker, to be able to move to the country. He issued a second edition in 1778. In 1786 he too sold the business to Charles Francois Delamarche (1740-1817), a Parisian lawyer, geographer, publisher, and globe maker.

The imprints and original dates are removed from the maps. The initial world map is now a double hemisphere one dated 1786 which displays the recently mapped east coast of Australia by Cook, but without referring to Britains claim to it. The track of Cook’s third voyage is also displayed, intriguingly terminating at Hawaii where reference is made to his death. An overlarge northwest coast of America is shown. The world map on Mercator’s projection is repeated three times, each bears population thematically coloured according to religion, skin colour, and facial type. It is also updated to reflect recent discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, northwest America, and Australia. The United States are identified. The map of the Holy Land is also repeated.

Following the regular map of France is an inserted uncalled for large folding map of ‘Le Royaume de France’ by Delamarche dated 1790. Departments and now added to the regional French maps. That of Africa now bears a note in the Atlantic referring to D’Anville and the source of the Nile which is also placed on the map. That of South Africa also now bears new legends in central Africa including the new ‘Fort Hollandois’ at the Cape of Good Hope. A new legend relating to Cook appears in the northwest of the map of America. That of North America now refers to the ‘Etats-Unis’ in the title, but not on the map. Its borders however do now extend to the Mississippi River. The map of ‘Canada, Louisiane …’ includes an inset displaying a large Sea of the West. Pedley (1992) pp. 97-102 & 231-3; Shirley (2004) Robv 2a (1778 edition only); Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).