Cartography of France

The history of French cartography can be traced to developments in the Middle Ages. This period was marked by improvements in measuring instruments and also by an upgrade of work in registers of all types. What is thought to be the oldest land map in Europe, the Saint-Bélec slab, representing an area of the Odet valley, was found in 1900, and rediscovered in a castle cellar in France in 2014. The Bronze-Age stone is thought to be 4,000 years old.^[1]

The first map of France was drawn by Oronce Finé and printed in woodcuts in 1525.^[2] It testifies to the will of the political power to mark its presence on the territory; to affirm, to build limits, borders, to arrange its territory, and to consolidate the internal economic markets. In the 16th century, Dieppe appeared as an important school of cartography. Pierre Desceliers allowed the realization of many maps. At the same time, the Portolan maps of the Portuguese sailors had the most recent knowledge obtained by the Dieppois sailors in their exploration of Canada.

Developments in cartography continually progressed, through new techniques and by the expanding will of political powers to amass and control territories. Very powerful companies testify support to some of the cartographic missions at the end of the 19th century. Two major milestones in cartographic study was successfully determining longitude and latitude.