The second rarer much expanded edition of Rigobert Bonne’s ‘Atlas Moderne’ which was originally published in 1762 with 35 maps. The content is more than doubled to 73 consisting mainly of more regional maps. Several are dated 1771, and many are two sheet maps. The ‘Avertissement’ states that the Abbe Nicolle de la Croix had desired an atlas to accompany his ‘Geographie Moderne’ which had been published in 1752. It goes on to state that this work partly meets in that it is arranged in the same manner, but many details have been added. The ‘Avertissement’ is extended with a further approbation signed by Marin dated 1771. The ‘Table’ of maps now runs to both sides of the leaf and although still numbered to 36, include numerous maps of regions with the same numbering but lettered differently. The advert of Lattre’s works bound at the end of the atlas is now on two pages. Not all examples of this edition contain the full compliment of maps. See the example in the Library of Congress for one.

Bonne (1727-95) was an engineer, mathematician and cartographer. He succeeded Jacques Nicolas Bellin as the hydrographer at the Depot de la Marine in 1773. Jean Lattre (d.1782) was the publisher of this edition. With maps by Bonne, Jean Janvier (1716-82) and Giovanni Antonio Rizzi-Zannoni (1736-1814). The maps are all an attractive quarto size with appealing colour. Over the years the atlas came to be issued in various formats in terms of quantity of maps. A particularly fine example. Phillips (1909-) 646; Sanderson (1971) NMM no. 215; Shirley BL T.Bonn 1b; Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).