unrecorded?
POIRSON, Jean-Baptiste. Carte de l'Empire Français Divisé en 130 Départements et en 522 Arrondissements Communaux avec les Justices de Paix. Donnant aussi les Routes de Poste. A Paris, chez Jean, 1813.
Large engraved hand-coloured map, dissected into 40 segments, on two linen-backed sheets, housed in the slightly damaged contemporary Milan dealer's slip-case, both sheets together measuring c. 130 by 150 cm; only minor spotting; a very well-preserved and incredibly rare map showing Napoleon's Empire at its probably largest extent.
Issued in the year Napoleon was losing the German departments rapidly. Remarkable is the empty field in the upper left corner, probably intended for text which was never engraved due to rapid changes to the Central European 'map' during the German War of Independence which gathered full momentum when Napoleon and the remnants of his Grande Armee retreated from Russia. The map became obsolete during the course of 1813, and was - unfinished as it is - probably not published. - We were not able to locate any other copy of this map, or find any reference to it.
#2119627