Chili, Paraguay, Brésil, Amazones et Pérou

Finely coloured map of South America south of the equator. This map was made by Louis Brion de la Tour in the year 1766 in Paris. The author was a French cartographer renowned for his detailed atlases and decorative maps. He worked as royal geographer and produced precise charts of France and other regions. His works combined scientific rigour with refined aesthetics, being appreciated in his time. The map shows us the various territories belonging to South America still under the colonial dominion of Spain and Portugal. Four coloured regions are differentiated, among which we can find “Perou” (present-day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile), “Pays des Amazones” or “Bresil” (present-day Brazil and Amazonia), “Paraguay” (present-day Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and “Terre Magellanique” which covers the territory of Patagonia (present-day Chile and Argentina). Some of the most important localities we can find are: Montevideo and Buenos Aires on the Río de la Plata, La Concepción, Santiago, Lima, Trujillo, Guayaquil and Quito on the Pacific coast. We also find in the interior of the continent Cuzco, La Paz, La Plata, Asunción and Córdoba. On the other hand, on the Brazilian coast Rio de Janeiro and “S. Salvador” (Salvador de Bahía) stand out. This map is accompanied by a text in French on both sides of it that tells us about the continent, its colonial history, its explorations and its natural riches. In addition, both the map and the text are gathered within a cartouche showing us various children with cartographers’ materials studying and investigating the globe. The design of the cartouche, in addition to the arrangement of the text, the design of the title and the colours reflected on the map, make the whole a distinctive piece.