Carte de tous les Ports de l’Europe situés tant sur l’Océan que sur la Mediterranée. Revue er Corrigée par L. Denis

Etching, signed after the title: A Paris chez Basset Rue S.t Jacques au coin de celle des Mathurins, à l’Image S.te Genevieve. Il tient Magasin de toue sortes de Papiers en Rouleaux.

Rare pilot of Europe and the Mediterranean, in excellent condition.

This chart of Europe was made updating the plate published by Alexis-Hubert Jaillot in about 1699. All the decorative elements disappear, including the large Baroque cartouche at the top right, replaced by a simple "box". The cartouche containing the graphic scales, which remain in the upper left corner, is also erased. The chart is completely amended, with new toponyms written in different lettering; small corrections also of geographic character in the lines of coast and in the course of some rivers.

Louis Denis (1725-1794) was a French engraver, cartographer and geographer. He is best known for having published Le Conducteur français, a guide on the streets of the kingdom of France. We know very little about his life; it seems that his original occupation was that of an engraver. In 1760, he joined forces with engineer-geographer and publisher Louis-Charles Desnos to modify and update existing maps. Louis Denis had the title of "géographe des enfants de France"; gave the Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI, a solid geographical culture. His most important work was Le Conducteur français, contained in the routes desservies par les nouvelles diligences, messageries & autres voitures publiques; avec un détail historique & topographique des endroits où elles passent, même de ceux qu'on peut apercevoir [sic]; des notes curieuses sur les chaînes des montagnes qu'on rencontre, etc. : these are travel itineraries for each of the main streets of the kingdom, accompanied by maps of high precision and quality that make it one of the ancestors of modern travel guides. Begun in 1776, the work was never completed; only 52 travel itineraries were published. Each booklet obtained the approval of Didier Robert de Vaugondy (1723-1786) who from 1773 was royal censor for geography, navigation and travel. Louis Denis was also the author of numerous plans in Paris, printed between 1758 and 1781.

Andrè Basset "the young" was a publisher, writer and print dealer. Brothers of the bookseller and print publisher Antoine Basset "the old". He had a shop on Rue St. Jacques, the Parisian street of engravers and printers, and he printed with the typographical mark with "Image S.te Genevieve". Died in June 1787, he is often confused with his son and successor Paul-André Basset.