![]() They weren’t sent home with a map like this, you would usually be given a map within a book, very nice binding with the coat of arms with the town of Paris in gold and that would easily fit in a suitcase.Hidden inside a rocky outcrop near a flock of grazing sheep, a miniature world of marine creatures-whose guts, eyes and even brains remain visible after some 462 million years-has been uncovered by researchers. So, it’s not very rare because Paris was a big city and obviously a lot of important travellers came to Paris and they went home with a nice gift. It’s very special in the way it was made but actually the town of Paris used it as a gift, an official gift to kings, to important visitors, to show a picture of Paris. It’s actually what we call a wall map and typically more maps existed all over the centuries, not only maps in books but they had them on the wall and then they were pasted on canvas and with wooden rollers so that you could hang them on the wall.īesides it being large and having this different perspective, is it also a really unique piece? Are there many of them? Is it one of a kind? I t looks enormous, it’s rolled up, it’s got ornate wooden, there’s a lot going on seeing it just wrapped up. I’m happy to show you the map, basically what I would like to show you is how this map by Turgot, has all the buildings in perspective and that was really something amazing and I think never surpassed by other map makers. It’s the most famous map made from Paris in the 18th century. Yes, it’s the biggest one we have inhouse and surely one of the most exciting maps of Paris. Is there a piece here and I suspect the big one over your shoulder, that you’re most excited about? ![]() That’s what collectors often find in maps, they like to collect maps of all parts of the world. I mean, you can look at the place names, you can see the development of areas over certain periods of time. I also like to travel and you can really travel on the maps. So, what I really like is the aesthetics of the maps from the 16th till the 18th century as these early maps had a lot of artistic points of view. You can imagine the maps of Africa, Australia – they were empty on the inside, so the publishers had the artist, at the time, to fill up the empty spaces with a lot of decorations and a lot of cartouches. Well there are a lot of things, for me personally, I was originally a graphic designer. What is about maps for you, that made you want to essentially devote your life to them? Practical information about how to visit the shop is at the end of the page. Here’s an abridged transcript of our conversation from The Earful Tower podcast. ![]() Right before this moment, I interviewed Pierre about his shop. And I was taking pictures and videos, which you can see below. The owners of the shop, Pierre Joppen and Béatrice Loeb, stood at either end of the map, holding its heavy weight in their arms. I was inside the Librairie Loeb Larocque antique map and book shop, as part of our 24-hour exploration of the 13th arrondissement, and I was transfixed. Notre Dame stood proud, you can see the details in the bridge arches, Paris looked stunning. It was a revolutionary 1734 map of Paris known as “Turgot’s monumental plan of Paris”, commissioned by former mayor Michel-Etienne Turgot and made by cartographer Louis Bretez.įor the first time, Paris was displayed in perspective, meaning all the buildings looked three dimensional. “Stand back, we’ll open it out on the floor.”Īs a huge fan of Paris, old Paris, ancient Paris, you can imagine my excitement as a rare and enormous map of the city was being unfurled before me. ![]()
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