1826 Bulla Comparative Mountains and Rivers Chart (Unique German Edition)

This is a rare c. 1826 separate German issue of François Bulla's seminal comparative mountains and rivers chart.

A Closer Look

While a fresh engraving, this map is otherwise an issue of François Bulla's 1826 mountains and rivers chart, one of the first charts to integrate mountains and rivers on a single chart and the first to add waterfalls. For a long time, this map was considered by scholars to be the earliest known chart to consolidate comparative mountains and rivers charts into a single sheet. Today, that honor has been superseded by the 1823 William Darton chart. As a comparative chart, Bulla's chart is far more sophisticated than Darton's earlier chart, incorporating a larger format, significant additional information, and comparative waterfalls.

Mountains so High

The comparative mountains section, occupying the lower right half of this chart, details the principal mountains of the world. Ranges are color-coded to show vegetation zones. The elevations of important cities, including Paris, Rome, London, Geneva, Mexico, Bogota, and Quito, among others, are noted. There are also extensive notations on vegetation, volcanic activity, and lichen, much of which is no doubt influenced by Alexander von Humboldt. The Himalayan peak Dhaulagiri is identified as the world's greatest mountain. Also noted are the ballooning feats of Frenchman Gay-Lussac, who attained an altitude of 23,000 feet in 1808, and the Italian meteorologist Pascal Andreoli and Carlo Brioschi, who rose to 27,000 feet over Padua, also in 1808.

Rivers so Long

The upper left portion of this chart is dominated by the world's greatest rivers. Bulla attempts not only to express the lengths of the various rivers, but also details regarding their course and sources. Along each river, important lakes, cities, directions, and distance measurements are noted. Here the Amazon is identified as the world's greatest river, followed by the Mississippi. The Nile comes up a sad sixth, although admittedly, it had yet to be fully explored.

And Waterfalls

This is the first appearance of waterfalls on a comparative mountains and rivers chart. As the great waterfalls of South America and Africa remained as yet largely unknown in European intellectual circles, most of the focus is on European waterfalls with the Chute de Gavarnie identified as the world's greatest cascade.

Publication History and Census

This is theonly known example of the present chart. It is not cataloged in OCLC, and no printer or engraver is named. The only reference to this map is an 1879 catalog entry from the Vereins für Geschichte und Landeskunde von Osnabrück.