Rare map engraved by Georges Louis Le Rouge and printed in Paris in 1742 describing Lombardy at a crucial moment in European history: the succession to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of Charles VI of Habsburg (1740), and the tensions arising from the War of Austrian Succession. The work accurately documents the Italian territories under Austrian influence, particularly the Duchy of Milan, the Duchy of Mantua, the Duchy of Parma, and the Duchy of Piacenza, which after the death of the last Farnese duke (Antonio Farnese, 1731), entered the game of dynastic alliances between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons.
Rather than a travel tool, the map is rather a political-territorial representation illustrating the state of imperial domains and claims in Italy. The borders are carefully drawn and distinguish the main political entities: the Duchy of Milan, the heart of the map, is shown in great detail, surrounded by strategic territories such as Savoy Piedmont, the Republic of Venice, Switzerland (Grisons), and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany further to the southeast.
At lower right, the title cartouche, in the Rococo style, is adorned with military and heraldic symbols: armor, trophies of arms, flags, and shields, alluding to the warlike context of imperial succession.
Georges Louis Le Rouge (c. 1707 – c. 1790) was a map publisher active in Paris in the mid-18th century. Le Rouge was born in Hanover, Germany, under the name Georg Ludwig, where he studied and later employed as a military engineer and surveyor. His father may have been the French architect Louis Remy de la Fosse (1659 – 1726), which would explain his early training in both engineering and drawing. He may have remained in Darmstadt, but little is known about his life from 1726 to 1736, when he moved permanently to Paris. Le Rouge obtained a position as military and civil engineer for Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Around this time, he francophone his name to “Le Rouge” and in 1740 opened a store on the Rue Des Grands Augustins as an engraver, book and map publisher.
He collaborated with the English cartographer and engineer John Rocque (1709-1762), who became an important source of maps, which Le Rouge engraved again for French use. Despite being born in Germany and adopting Paris as his home, Le Rouge was an ardent Anglophile and spent much of his time translating English books and maps into French. During his stint, which lasted about forty years, Le Rouge produced thousands of maps, city plans, atlases and nautical charts. He was a friend and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), with whom he produced the important Franklin/Folger chart of the Gulf Stream of 1769. Franklin, who met Le Rouge in Paris, writes that “he [Le Rouge] is, I believe, a correct person.” For his diligence he was rewarded with the appellation “Geographe du Roi.”
