Picturing versus Mapping in the French Renaissance

A topographical map of 1609 provides insight into the way that the chorographic tradition in France co-existed with the newer culture of geometrical survey. An example of the vue figurée, or painted view, it portrays the seigneurial forest of Nanteuil-le-Haudouin in the duchy of Valois. Although the image belonged to a medieval genre of judicial picture mapping, it also employs modern cartographic techniques and signals a wider transition from one practice to the other. The study is based on previously unknown archival documents directly related to the map commission and to the property depicted.