CARTE-ITINÉRAIRE DE L'ESPAGNE ET DU PORTUGAL. DÉPÔT DE LA GUERRE. 1823.
| DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION AND CARTOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION | |
| TITLE |
CARTE-ITINÉRAIRE DE L’ESPAGNE ET DU PORTUGAL. (Military Itinerary map of Spain and Portugal) |
| AUTHOR | El Dépôt de la Guerre (French Army’s Map Service). |
| DATE OF EDITION | 1823 |
| PUBLISHER | The Dépôt de la Guerre itself edited the map in Paris. According to the bibliographical documentation, it was published by Ch. Piquet, Géographe ordinaire du Roi et de S.A.S. Monseigneur le Duc d'Orleans (Geographer of the King and S.A.S. Monsignor Duke of Orleans), in his Quai de Conti workshop. Publication data was taken from the copy of the National Library of Spain (Sign./Mv/4) which preserves the editor label at the back of the sheets. |
| SUPPORTING AUTHORS | Richard Wahl, former Dépôt de la Guerre cadet, engraved the map. The authorities that requested the elaboration of the map appear in the cartouche: the War Minister, marshal duke of Bellune; and the Dépôt de la Guerre director, general lieutenant count Guilleminot. The first was the famous Marshal Victor, Claude-Victor Perrin (1764-1841), who arrived to Spain in 1808 heading La Grande Armée with Napoleon. He later converted into absolutism and was designated War Minister by Luis XVIII in 1821. He was in charge of the preparation of the campaign to invade Spain with the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, in order to overthrow the Liberal Trienniumi and restore Fernando VII absolute monarchy. However, his designation as general commander for that army was revoked by the Duke of Angulema (1775-1844), nephew of the King of France, when he took the lead of the invasion that finally started in April 1823. Previously, in 1814, the Duke of Angulema had also battled in Spain, but on the opposite side of Victor, under Wellington command. Still, he lacked the experience to command an invasion and needed support from count Guilleminot, the other author of the map, who was promoted Chief of Staff by the Duke. Gilleminot had just been appointed as Dépôt de la Guerrei Director in 1822. He had obtained his title and military range when he was a Staff Officer in Napoleon Imperial Army, with whom he also took part in the Peninsular War. |
| SCALE AND UNITS | 1:174.000 scale. Up to eight graphic scales in different units of length are included: French, Spanish and Portuguese leagues; as well as kilometres. A conversion table from 17½ Spanish leagues per degree into the remainder units is included too. This reference league is the one used on the map labelling. In addition, the most common values for the Castilian vara are shown in a note. |
| REPRESENTED AREA | Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands, including parts of southern France and a small area of northern Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar. |
| SHEET DISTRIBUTION | Map assembled on canvas in 32 fragments of 22,5 x 36 cm, folded in a cardboard folder. At the National Library of Spain another copy was consulted, which was edited in 4 sheets of 71 x 92 cm, with 23 x 15,5 cm fragments assembled on canvas and folded in a cardboard folder too. |
| ORIGINAL DOCUMENT TYPE | Single ink paper lithography. |
| ORIGINAL SIZE | 134 x 179 cm |
| CARTOGRAPHIC ELEMENTS AND SYMBOLOGY | General map with the objective of representing the roads subject to be used as military routes for troop movements. Its composition is related with the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis campaign preparation. Basically it is a road and carriageway map, where the key-legend is mostly used for the roads symbology. As already mentioned, each network section is labelled with 17½ Spanish leagues per degree. Towns, both in and outside the road network, are hierarchically labelled, identifying those fortified. The smallest villages are not represented. The provincial limits included in this map are not those approved in 1822 by the Liberal Triennium, but the ones from the old regime that the French army expected to restore, including the old maritime provinces of Asturias and Santander created in 1799. Provinces names are clearly labelled, as well as other minor administrative divisions that, following the messy territorial jurisdiction, were placed inside a different province from the one to which they belonged. Hydrography and relief constitute the map background. Although the drawing could be more precise, the advance in hydrographic representation is remarkable. Rivers and their tributaries are hierarchically organized, accuratelly linked to their basins and correctly labelled. However, relief information and labelling is quite poor, as indicated in our Comment. Relief is represented by the shaded hachures method, very common at that time, which used the slope hachures technique combined with figurative side illumination in order to bring a shadow perception through lines with different weights It is worth mentioning the unfortunate attempt to translate some toponyms into French, like Vittoria, Mondonedo, Fernand Caballero; on top of those with an already accepted French version like Saragosse. |
| DATA COLLECTION PERIOD | Around 1808 to 1823. See the “Positioning methods and information sources” section. |
| ORIGINAL PROJECTION SYSTEM | Parallel and meridian configuration indicates the usage of a conic projection. The pseudo-conic Bonne projection was commonly used on XIXc, since it was applied by the Dépôt de la Guerre in its Carte d’État Major (Major State Chart) |
| DATUM/SHAPE OF THE EARTH | The recently established Plessis ellipsoid was probably applied to this map, following Dépôt de la Guerre’s Carte d’État Major |
| GRATICULE AND GRID FRAME. PRIME MERIDIAN | One degree meridians and parallels grid. Graduated frame with 5 minutes subdivisions. Latitude and longitude with origin at the Equator and the Paris Meridian respectively, being this latter at 2º20`14,025” east Greenwich according to the French IGN |
| POSITIONING METHODS AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION | A note states that “for the elaboration of this map, itineraries collected in Spain and Portugal were used, as well as military surveys done during the last campaigns by the officers from the Royal Corps of Engineer Geographers and other officers”. Thus, as might be expected from a small scale map, it compiles detailed cartographic, graphic and literary information; previously collected by French military engineers. During the Hundred Thousand sons of Saint Louis campaign, a Bureau topographique de l’Armée d’Espagne (Topographic Committe of Spanish Army) was founded to carry out a wide cartographic programme since the deficient Tomás López’ Atlas was the only available map countrywise. The Bureau officers led many surveys of military itineraries, making triangulations and more precise geodetic works, to produce rigorous cartography However, this military itinerary map was made while the invasion was prepared, exclusively using information available in the Dépôt de la Guerre, collected during the Peninsular War prior to the defeat of the French Army in 1814. A former Bureau topographique de l’Armée d’Espagne was also created during the Peninsular War, but the severity of the conflict obstructed the works |
| DOCUMENT ORIGIN | Royal Academy of History. Digital Library. Restored copy. Downloaded from http://bibliotecadigital.rah.es// |
| DIGITALIZATION | Royal Academy of History. Digital Library. Format: JGEG Digitalization date: unknown. Download date: 2005-2015 Resolution: 150 dpi Color mode: RGB |
| CARTOGRAPHIC DIGITAL EDITION | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Cartographic Service. Georeferencing: -Separation of fragments from canvas and reconstruction of their continuity by image edition tools: selection, translation, rotation and lateral distortion. -Georeferencing in the projection system deduced as original: conic projection of Albers with central meridian at 5º30’ west of Paris (-3,162 decimal degrees from Greenwich), and standard parallels at 49º and 33º N. 1831 Plessis ellipsoid used as earth shape with Paris meridian (2º22’14’’ east of Greenwich) as latitude of origin. 9 control points were placed at well distributed meridian and parallel intersections, followed by a second order polynomial transformation. The resulting RMS error (281,16 m) is good enough attending to the map scale and the fact it was assembled on canvas. -The georeferenced file is adjusted by triangulation to a numerically generated theoretical meridian and parallel grid that matches the one from the map. -Transformation into ETRS89 / UTM zone 30N reference system. Terrain resolution: 127,0453 m Color adjustments: -Levels: 8 – 1 – 255 -Unsharp mask: 175% amount – 1,2 px radius – 7 level threshold over a file with terrain resolution increased up to 90 m in order to keep smaller text reading viable. |
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