BONNISEL, J. Plan de la ville et Faubourgs...

BONNISEL, J. Plan de la ville et Faubourgs de Paris avec ses monuments. Paris, chez Jean, 1814. Bound in period col. Folding plan in 32 sections on canvas. Small wormhole at center. Small wet spot at top right, paper slightly grayish. 940 x 1210 mm Large wall plan of the city of Paris, published in 1814, still bearing the emblems of the Empire. The city is divided into twelve arrondissements and forty-eight districts. These forty-eight districts, or territorial and administrative divisions, were created in June 1790 by the Constituent Assembly, in order to put an end to the State's guardianship of the Paris commune. The plan shows the first embellishments and roadworks ordered by Napoleon: the Ourcq canal, completed in 1802; the Saint-Denis canal, begun in 1811; the Villette basin, designed to supply water to the capital, completed between 1806 and 1809; the Abattoirs; and the Nord, Est, Vaugirard and Sainte-Catherine cemeteries (decree of June 12, 1804), the new Place du Marché-Neuf mortuary (police order of 1804), the Pont des Arts, built between 1802 and 1804, the Pont d'Austerlitz, between 1799 and 1807, the reserve granaries, the Quai d'Orsay, the flower market and the western part of the Rue de Rivoli. On the right bank, opposite the Champ de Mars, is a drawing of a planned palace. This is the Palais du Roi de Rome, son of Emperor Napoleon I, a project designed by architect Pierre Fontaine, which never saw the light of day. On the Île de la Cité, the Quai aux Fleurs, named Quai Napoléon from 1804 to 1816, was renamed Quai de l'Archevêché. The Place des Vosges, so named in 1800 in honor of the department of the same name, which was the first to pay taxes during the French Revolution, is here known as Place Royale, which was its name when it was created, and again from 1814 to 1830. The Prefecture of Police is located here on rue de Jérusalem. This street, which once stood at 38 quai des Orfèvres, disappeared in 1883. This rare plan is surrounded by twenty-nine views of the main Parisian monuments, including the planned Palais du Roi de Rome. The city's twelve arrondissements are outlined in watercolor. The plan is accompanied by a list of streets, passages, bridges, squares, abattoirs, cemeteries and arrondissements. The title, inscribed on a drapery, is adorned with the Imperial Eagle. We have found no information on the author, J. Bonnisel. This is most certainly the Parisian engraver and geographer Jacques Guillaume Bonnisselle or Bonisel (17..-1833), author of a map of France published by Jean in Paris, as for our map. This map of France bears the name J.G. Bonnisel (copy at BnF). Vallée also mentions a Plan de Paris divisé en 12 mairies, engraved by Bonnisel and also published by Jean, in 1807 (Vallée, 1632). - Bonnardot, p. 226; unknown to Vallée? Expert: Béatrice Loeb-Larocque