Koromandel

1789

Copper engraving on paper

Upper Sheet
Print size: 19.75 x 21.5 in (50 x 54.5 cm)
Sheet size: 24.25 x 31 in (61.5 x 78.5 cm)
Lower Sheet
Print size: 19.75 x 21.5 in (50 x 54.5 cm)
Sheet size: 24.25 x 31.25 in (61.5 x 79.5 cm)

Franz Anton Schrämbl’s 1789 Map of the Coromandel Coast—An Enlightenment Re-Engraving after Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville

This authoritative map of the Coromandel Coast, published in 1789 by Franz Anton Schrämbl, is a German-language re-engraving derived from Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville’s seminal 1753 map of the region. Carefully translated, updated, and issued for a Central European readership, Schrämbl’s map stands as a refined transmission of d’Anville’s geographic reforms and one of the most reliable late-eighteenth-century representations of southern India. German-language editions of this type were produced in comparatively smaller numbers than their English counterparts, and surviving examples are consequently scarcer on the market. The present impression is further distinguished by its notably wide margins, enhancing both its aesthetic presence and collector appeal.

D’Anville, widely regarded as the most exacting cartographer of the Enlightenment, transformed European mapmaking by rejecting conjectural ornament and inherited distortions in favour of verifiable data, astronomical observation, and the critical evaluation of European and Asian manuscript sources. His 1753 Coromandel map exemplified this methodological shift, establishing a scientific framework that decisively shaped subsequent cartography of the Indian peninsula. Schrämbl’s 1789 engraving preserves these principles with notable fidelity, reproducing d’Anville’s corrected coastline, spatial proportions, and hydrographic structure while introducing incremental refinements and German nomenclature.

The map depicts the southeastern littoral from Masulipatnam to Cape Comorin, identifying major ports such as Madras, Pulicat, Negapatam, Pondicherry, and Tranquebar, alongside rivers, roads, settlements, and mountain ranges rendered in profile with a precision unmatched by earlier printed maps. Inland regions, though less completely surveyed, are treated with deliberate restraint—reflecting d’Anville’s guiding principle to represent only what could be substantiated.

Within the broader historiography of Indian cartography, Schrämbl’s Koromandel occupies a pivotal position between d’Anville’s foundational scientific synthesis and the later, survey-driven work of James Rennell. Where d’Anville established a new empirical standard through critical compilation, Schrämbl disseminated and consolidated that achievement at the close of the Enlightenment; Rennell would soon supersede both through systematic ground survey and triangulation under Company auspices. Schrämbl’s map thus represents the mature expression of Enlightenment cartography immediately before the transition to modern survey science, capturing southern India at a moment when geographic knowledge was both highly refined and still dependent on critical synthesis rather than instrumental measurement.

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