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Name: Guillaume de L'Isle
Dates: 1675-1726
Map type: Copper plate engraved maps.

Guillaume de L'Isle was one of the more renowned, and highly productive French cartographers of the eighteenth century. His work marks a significant and deliberate progression away from the accepted style of dominant Dutch master cartographers. His Father, Claude de L'Isle (1644-1720), a historian and geographer, obviously instilled his passion and knowledge for geography into his son like only a father can. Guillaume is said to have begun to produce maps in his early teens, and was encouraged to continue and perfect his talent. In coming of age, his maps began to get the notice they deserved, not only for their significant scientific detail, but also as works which were subtly decorative.  It was with this artistic, very Gallic flair that he achieved de L'Isle recognition in both France and in Holland.

His first atlas was published in about 1700, and in 1702 he was elected a member of L'academie Royale des Sciences, and, bolstering his notoriety  became Premier Geographe du Roi (First Geographer to the King) in 1718.  The sincerity and modern accuracy, without the now archaic tickle of sea monsters and cherubs, and armes of land ownership, the familiar norm of the Dutch famed cartographers, took de l'Isle's maps into a new wave of scientific charting: stating fact, and leaving only a little room for distracting artistry.

Though Guillaume died  in 1726, his mark on the world of map-making had been well made and paved a route for those with a passion for making scientific fact both accessible and aesthetically pleasing.


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