1863 Stanford Map of the Seven Basque Provinces, Spain and France

This is an impressive large-scale 1863 linguistic map of the Basque country in Spain and France showing the dialects, varieties, and sub-varieties of the Basque language, Euskara. The map illustrates the philological of Louis Lucien Bonaparte, whose classifications of Euskara remains definitive.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces the Pays Basque in southwestern France, including Basse Pyrenées, and in northeastern Spain, including Gipuzkoa, Vizcaya, Pamplona, and Navarra. Color coding defines dialects, illustrating regional overlaps. This is one of two maps Bonaparte produced to illustrate his linguistic classifications.

Euskara

Euskara, the Basque language, is an ancient language spoken in the Basque Country, a vast region spanning parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Euskara is a language isolate, unlike its neighboring Romance languages, meaning it has no known linguistic relatives. It is one of the oldest languages in Europe, with roots that predate the arrival of Indo-European languages on the continent. Despite periods of suppression, particularly during the Franco dictatorship in Spain, Euskara has experienced a revival since the late 20th century, bolstered by regional autonomy and strong cultural movements. Today, efforts to promote and preserve Euskara include its inclusion in education, media, and public life, contributing to its resilience and cultural significance.

Publication History and Census

This map was designed by Louis Lucien Bonaparte and engraved in London in Stanford's Geographical Establishment. While the map preparation occurred in 1862, the map was not published until 1863. Rare. We note perhaps 5 examples in OCLC, but numerous digitizations.