MANUSCRITE MAP / FOUGEU, Jacques. (All of Brittany). Ca. 159 - Lot 26

MANUSCRITE MAP / FOUGEU, Jacques. (All of Brittany). Ca. 1590-1600. Black and white. Brown ink and graphite on paper. Some wetness and brown stains, numerous traces of folds. Some consolidations on the back with old paper. In very good condition considering the time of production and its size. 845 x 1250 mm. Spectacular handwritten map of Brittany made around 1599 by Jacque Fougeu. The map has no title, no author's name, no date. It has a rather rough scale numbered up to 8 decorated with a compass. The writing is nervous with some erasures. The sea is represented by wavy lines in pen, a boat is represented in the south. The coasts are underlined with graphite. Abundant toponymy. "We then found that the Department of Maps and Plans had a very large batch of maps by the same hand, about 180, covering a large part of France, all with the same general characteristics, almost always without title, never with dates, never with an author's name although listed under the name of Jacques Fougeu. They were covered with a nervous though rather regular handwriting, sometimes with erasures... The handwriting on Fougeu's cards, while quite difficult to read, is very personal. In addition, these maps include conventional signs of a nervous graphism also easy to identify. However, there exists in the Manuscript Department of the Bibliothèque Nationale, a small atlas, the French manuscript 11.224, which includes 44 maps obviously by the same hand as the batch in the Department of Maps and Plans. And on the title page of the work, we can read: "Le présent livre de cartes a esté fait par moy Jacques Fougeu, marechal des Logis du Roy et de ses armées, le XX/f jour de May 1599", followed by the signature of our author. We do not know who, from Madame Fonçin, from Father de Dainville or from M. Buisseret, made this extraordinary comparison, but one thing is certain, by this means, the attribution of the whole work is perfectly established, the dating of the various maps being able to be the subject of particular hypotheses, a little below or beyond 1599". (LES CARTES DE JACQUES FOUGEU, Maréchal des Logis des armées d'Henri IV by Bernard Savary). FOUGEU, Jacques (1575-1645). Marshal of the logis of king Henri IV in 1599 and general marshal between 1619 and 1634. Author of an atlas ms. signed and dated (B.N.F., Ms.) and of another atlas undated but signed (B. N.F., Cartes et plans), and of numerous maps neither dated nor signed (B.N.F., Cartes et plans). - Bernard Savary. The maps of Jacques Fougeu, Maréchal des Logis des armées d'Henri IV.