Nouvelle Carte des Ordres Militaires ou de Chevalerie instituée par divers Prince pour Recompenser le Merite ou la Vertu de

Interesting plate with an illustration of all the medals awarded to the Knights, with descriptive French text, from Chatelain's monumental Atlas Historique. In upper right margin: “Tome 7, No 40”.

The atlas was published in seven volumes between 1705 and 1720, with a second edition appearing in 1732. The maps were accompanied by information pertaining to cosmography, geography, history, chronology, genealogy, topography, heraldry, and costumes of the world. The maps in the Atlas Historique were mainly based on those of the French cartographer, Guillaume De L'Isle, but were presented by Chatelain in an encyclopaedic form.

Copper etching, finely hand coloured, in very good condition.

Henri Abraham Chatelain (1684 - 1743) was a Huguenot pastor of Parisian origins. He is best known as a Dutch cartographer and more specifically for his cartographic contribution in the seminal seven volume Atlas Historique, published in Amsterdam between 1705 and 1720. Innovative for its time, the Atlas Historique combined fine engraving and artwork with scholarly studies of geography, history, ethnology, heraldry, and cosmography. Some scholarship suggests that the Atlas Historique was not exclusively compiled by Henri Chatelain, as is commonly believed, but rather was a family enterprise involving Henri, his father Zacharie and his brother, also Zacharie.