1863 Brayer Large Scale Case Map (1 results)

Very good. Dissected and mounted on fresh linen. Area of infill to lower left margin. Repaired tears. Size 50 x 33 Inches. This is an extremely rare 1863 map of Paraguay, produced by Alfred Lucien de Brayer, Napoleon III of France's consul to the South American country. It was published to commemorate the 10th year of France's diplomatic recognition of Paraguay's independence and probably as an attempt to bolster de Brayer's damaged reputation with the Emperor. The map is superbly detailed, laying out Paraguay and its frontier regions. It details the administrative regions within the country; neighboring indigenous tribes and nations are noted, as well as the bordering regions of Brazil and Argentina. France's First Consul to Paraguay The first dictator of Paraguay, Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (1766 - 1840), El Supremo from 1814 to 1840, was recognized only by France. The government of Carlos López (1792 - 1862) gained legitimacy by recognition in the 1840s by Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and in 1852, Argentina. European recognition came more slowly: Austria in 1847, with England and France following suit in 1853. Following French recognition of Paraguay, a 'Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation' was signed on March 4, 1853, by the representative of Emperor Napoleon III, Chevalier Léonce de Saint-Georges, and President López' son Francisco Solano (1826 - 1870). The following year, Francisco - who would succeed his father, disastrously - visited Paris for the treaty's ratification and was personally received by Napoleon III. It was also agreed to establish a French consulate in Asunción, and the Emperor appointed Count Lucien de Brayer to the post. He arrived on November 20, 1854, and served until he was replaced by Count Alfred de Brossard in 1856. The Sources De Brayer's map is distinct from contemporaneous maps in its detail, but its author credits his sources for the different elements of the map in the text of the work. For the interior of the country, he claims to have drawn on the observations - dating from about 1809 - of Felix de Azara (1746 - 1821). De Brayer nods to Jose Maria Cabrer (1761 - 1836) for the course of the Parana, but his 1853 work can also be recognized on the west bank of the Paraguay River - an important area, as this was the riverine access to the contested Chaco in which the French colony of Nuevo Burdeos would be established. We have been unable to trace the former French Navy officer Alban de la Berge, whom de Brayer credits for the course of the Paraguay from its confluence with the Parana to Asunción. But the points upstream to Coimbra come from a journey there in 1855 performed by the steamship Tacuarí , then commanded by the English officer George Francis Morice. (Tacuarí, a recent Paraguayan purchase from England, had in 1854 been sailed by Morice to Paraguay carrying Francisco Solano López and his delegation, returning from his mission to Napoleon III. It is very probable that De Brayer was also aboard when the vessel first arrived in Asunción on January 21, 1855. Command passed from Morice to Pedro Ignacio Meza in 1856, so the Tacuarí could become the new flagship of the Paraguayan Navy.) De Brayer credits the mapping of Brazil's frontier to a 'scholar, Mr. d'Angelis, based on his long investigations into the history of these countries and in particular the faithful interpretation of the treaties of 1750 and 1777 between the crowns of Spain and Portugal'. This is almost certainly a reference to Pedro de Angelis' 1852 Memoria historica sobre los derechos de soberania y dominio de la Confederacion Argentina a la parte austral del continente Americano ('Historical memoir on the rights of sovereignty and dominion of the Argentine Confederation to the southern part of the American continent'). This Neapolitan historian and newspaper publisher, an emigrant to Buenos Aires, was a member of both the Paris Société de Géographie and the Royal Geographical Soci. Signed by Author(s).