A rarer later edition of Rigobert Bonne’s ‘Atlas Moderne’ which was originally published in 1762. The original co-publisher Thomas Herissant is replaced by Nicolas-Auguste Delalain (d.1807) on the title page. Research indicates that there is no link between the imprints and the number of maps contained in the atlas. 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. However, eight of the maps bear later dates. Those of the world, Europe, France, Switzerland, Africa, and North America and South America are dated 1782. That of the American continent is dated 1783, both it and that of North America display ‘Etats Unis’, the newly formed United States of America. The map or Switzerland is replaced by another larger one omitting the three border panels. The advert of Lattre’s works bound at the end of the atlas which previously was engraved is now on two typographic pages.

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. Provenance: with bookplate of the Galiffe family pasted inside upper board with by hand ‘aex libris meis 1824 Ja. A. Galiffe’ standing for Jaques (James) Augustin Galiffe (1776-1853). Phillips (1909-) 646; refer Shirley BL T.Bonn 1a; Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).