Cartography in France 1660–1848: Science, Engineering, and Statecraft by Josef Konvitz

Abstract

1042 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE by the reader who examines the comparable articles in Singer and in the Cambridge Economic History. R. P. Multhauf Dr. Milthali is retired from the Smithsonian Institution and living in San Rafael, California. He is working on a history of gunpowder in the first three centuries of firearms and a history of the social effect of accelerated technological change. Cartography in France 1660—1848: Science, Engineering, and Statecraft. By Josef Konvitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Pp. xx + 194; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95. As tradition has it, Louis XIV once confessed that, despite his military prowess, no conquest could rival or redress the territorial loss inflicted by his own cartographers. Ironically, Louis’s Academicians— under the banner of cartographic accuracy—had brilliantly but unwittingly ravaged the realm and reduced His Majesty’s tax base. There was no real loss, but the paradox was complete. As Voltaire later observed regarding calendars, Roman armies usually won the day, but they were seldom certain of the exact date. Similarly, Roman statesmen happily adjusted their calendars to meet unforeseen tax needs. Space and time, considered conceptually or as political contriv­ ances, are as essential to the modern mind as they are to the modern state. Voltaire understood that science, as well as its applications, gave rise to the Siècle de Louis XIV·, indeed, Louis’s France has become more of an epoch than a place. While the English continued to labor under the Julian calendar, the French not only erected Versailles, they conquered terrestrial space. In an effort to construct modern roads, regulate waterways, and promote commerce, in order to ensure military supply, domestic security, and strategic mobility, France supported its cartographers. Why? Before it could clarify and coor­ dinate ecclesiastical, judicial, and military administrations, before it could maintain its mines, roads, and tax base, France needed accurate maps. The present volume surveys the origins and development of modern French cartography from 1660 to 1848. Going beyond the earlier efforts ofJames King’s pioneering Science and Rationalism in the Government of Louis XIV, 1661—1683 (1949) and Charles C. Gillispie’s heroic Science and Polity in France at the End of the Old Regime (1980), Josef Konvitz addresses four central topics: large-scale national map surveys, landform and hydrographic cartography, maps assessing French social, economic, and geopolitical concerns, and thematic maps. If the central concern of the volume is cartography and state policy—rather than technical or theoretical mapmaking—the thesis is that the Dutch passed the mapmaking mantle to France in the TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1043 mid-17th century; thereafter, geodetic, topographical, and thematic cartography entered a new era, a period dominated by the French for the next two centuries. But why France, and why these centuries? Before approaching an answer, Konvitz suggests that ideas and individuals were less significant than institutions, that the willingness of French policymakers to support cartographic activity in advance of demonstrated need was an essential ingredient. Favorable condi­ tions, then, aided by a variety of supporting institutions, eventually gave rise to increased numbers of mapmakers, and, in turn, cartography emerged as an “autonomous enterprise.” Some readers perhaps will not be satisfied or entirely persuaded by this explana­ tion. Interpretive terms such as discipline, specialty, trade, comm­ unity—even paradigm—are avoided. In the end, this volume provides a useful institutional survey of the development of French cartography from 1660 to 1848. To be sure, readers expecting a theoretical or technical history of mapmaking will be disappointed. But for the reader seeking a solid survey, a scholarly study grounded in archival research and drafted by a skilled hand, the hook provides direction and timely assistance to the contours of modern French cartography. Robert A. Hatch Dr. Hatch, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, teaches in the Program for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine. He is currently preparing a calendar for the correspondence of Ismael Boulliau (1605-94), an edition of the Boulliau-Gassendi correspondence, and a biographical guide and index to the Scientific Revolution. Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, 1851—1939. By Paul Greenhalgh. Manchester: Manchester University...