Carte des Malabar et de Coromondel [2 versions]
a) Guillaume de Lisle
Carte des Cotes de Malabar et de Coromandel, presentee au Roy. Par son tres humble, tres obeissant et tres fidele sujet, G. Delisle. Marin sculpsit. A Paris, chez l'Auteur G. Delisle Premier Geographe de Sa Majeste de l'Academie Rle. des Sciences, sur le Quay de l'Horloge, av. Pr. 1723
1723
Copper engraving on paper
Print size: 18.5 x 23.75 in (47 x 60.5 cm)
Sheet size: 20.5 x 30.75 in (52 x 78 cm)
b) Covens et Mortier
Carte des Cotes de Malabar et de Coromandel, presentee au Roy. Par Guillaume de l'Isle. A Amsterdam, Chez J. Covens et C. Mortier, Geographes (Also known in bibliographic literature under the Latin title Orarum Malabariæ, Coromandelæ, &c. Tabula Accuratissima) )
1742 (undated; later Covens & Mortier reissue following acquisition of Mortier plates)
Copper engraving on paper
Print size: 18.75 x 23 in (47.5 x 58.5 cm)
Sheet size: 20.25 x 24.75 in (51.5 x 63 cm)
Guillaume Delisle’s Carte de Malabar et de Coromandel (1723) — With the Covens & Mortier Amsterdam Reissue (1742): A Matched Enlightenment Pair
This important matched offering brings together two successive cartographic expressions of Southern India that together document the creation, transmission, and consolidation of Enlightenment scientific geography: Guillaume Delisle’s Carte de Malabar et de Coromandel, published in Paris in 1723, and its later Amsterdam reissue by Covens & Mortier in 1742. Seen side by side, the two maps chart the movement of cartographic knowledge from its French intellectual origins to its broader European dissemination through Dutch commercial publishing.
Delisle’s original 1723 map represents one of the earliest fully “scientific” depictions of the southern Indian peninsula, grounded in astronomical observation, mathematical projection, and the systematic comparison of manuscript sources. Drawing on Jesuit survey intelligence, Mughal administrative geography, and coastal knowledge circulating through European trading networks, Delisle corrected long-standing distortions in both the Malabar and Coromandel coastlines. Major ports—Goa, Calicut, Cochin, Madras, Masulipatnam, Nagapattinam, and Pondicherry—are repositioned with a new proportional coherence, while inland regions such as Mysore, the Carnatic, and the Deccan appear with unprecedented geographic order.
Particularly desirable is the present example’s early atlas issue, bearing the Quai de l’Horloge imprint and printed on heavy paper—an earlier and scarcer state than later reissues by Buache or Covens & Mortier, and thus especially sought after by serious collectors. This lot is exceptional in offering both the rarer Paris printing and the Amsterdam edition of the same map in direct comparison.
The map’s title emphasises what was of greatest importance to European maritime powers: the “Côtes de Malabar” and “Côtes de Coromandel,” long contested zones of commerce and imperial rivalry. Political boundaries are outlined in early hand colour, settlements are marked with pictorial symbols, and trade routes traverse the interior, linking resource centres such as the diamond mines of Raolconda (Golconda) with key commercial crossroads. A dedication to the King of France (Louis XV), twin compass roses with magnetic variation notes, and multiple scale bars further underscore the map’s administrative and navigational ambition.
Of particular note, this map is among the first European printed maps to identify major Hindu sacred sites—most importantly the temples of Tirupati, Lord Jagannath at Puri, and the “Seven Pagodas” (Mahabalipuram)—marking a significant early moment in the inclusion of South India’s religious geography within Western cartographic knowledge.
The 1742 Covens & Mortier reissue preserves Delisle’s scientific framework while adapting it for Amsterdam’s powerful atlas trade, with subtle refinements in engraving, typography, and visual balance characteristic of Dutch production. Together, these maps illuminate both the intellectual authority of Delisle’s geography and the mechanisms by which it circulated across Europe.
A rare comparative set of foundational importance—documenting Southern India at a moment when trade, empire, and Enlightenment science converged, and when Europe first imposed a rational, empirically grounded spatial order upon the peninsula.
(Set of two)
NON-EXPORTABLE
This lot is offered at RESERVE
This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each lot.