‘Carte de la plaine de Troie’ (1786–1787) — Large Engraved Map of Ancient Troy by Barbié Bocage & Louis-François Cassas, from Choiseul-Gouffier’s Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce

Paris: Blaise, 1786-1887. Louis-Francois Cassas - Cartographer. No Binding. Americana;

A large, finely engraved late-18th-century map of the Plain of Troy—prepared by Barbié Bocage and Louis-François Cassas for Choiseul-Gouffier’s monumental Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce—combining classical scholarship, archaeological inquiry, and distinguished French cartography.

Large engraved map on laid paper, executed by Jean-Denis Barbié Bocage (artist/engraver) from surveys by Louis-François Cassas (cartographer), issued as a folding plate in Choiseul-Gouffier’s Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce (1782–1842), one of the great archaeological and artistic productions of the French Enlightenment.

Unbound, as extracted, measuring approximately 26½ × 20 inches. Depicts the classical Plain of Troy, including Alexandria Troas, Kara Dag (Black Mountain), Tenedos, coastal features of the Aegean Sea, and surveyed elevations. Plate mark visible; well-inked, with crisp linework characteristic of Cassas’s topographical style.

Condition: Light foxing; toning concentrated at margins and extremities; minor chipping at edges; two small closed tears at the foot; otherwise well-preserved with a strong, readable impression. Suitable for conservation or presentation.

This map represents one of the most ambitious Enlightenment attempts to reconcile ancient literary geography with modern topographical survey, executed during the French archaeological missions of the late eighteenth century.

Drawn in 1786–1787 by Louis-François Cassas—one of the most accomplished artist-surveyors of the period—and engraved by Jean-Denis Barbié Bocage, Dean of the Paris Faculty of Letters and an influential figure in early archaeological cartography, it forms part of Choiseul-Gouffier’s Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce, an expansive visual and textual project that helped shape European understanding of the ancient world.

The map documents the classical Troad at a moment when archaeologists, diplomats, and artists were actively re-mapping ancient sites using Enlightenment methods. Its survey includes key Homeric locations, the route from Alexandria Troas, and coastal landmarks near Tenedos—features central to the longstanding debate over the geographical reality of Homer’s Troy.

Large, intact plates from Voyage pittoresque remain desirable among collectors of antiquarian cartography, classical archaeology, and the history of early scientific surveying.

Provenance: From the holdings of Archaeologia Books and Prints (est. 1983), a respected specialist in ancient Mediterranean archaeology and early cartographic materials.

SUBJECTS: Troy and the Troad; Homeric Geography; 18th-Century French Cartography; Cassas; Barbié Bocage; Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce; Aegean Topography; Classical Studies, Antiquarian Cartography; Classical Archaeology; Enlightenment Surveying; Illustrated Antiquities.

Background:
Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (27 September 1752, Paris - 20 June 1817, Aix-la-Chapelle) was a member of the Académie française and the Choiseul-Gouffier family, French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1784 until the fall of the French monarchy and a scholar of ancient Greece.

Jean-Denis Barbié said Barbié Bocage , born April 28 1760 in Paris and died in that city on 28 December 1825 Is a geographer and French cartographer, Dean of the Faculty of Letters of Paris, member of the Institute.

Louis-François Cassas, born on June 3, 1756, was a distinguished French landscape painter, sculptor, architect, archaeologist and antiquary born at Azay-le-Ferron, in the Indre Department of France. (Information courtesy of Wikipedia)

Item #21319

Price: $325.00