1860 Bourdin / Babinet Wall Map of the World on Mollweide Projection

A stunning c. 1860 wall-sized map of the world on a Mollweide or Babinet Projection surrounded by elaborate allegorical imagery. Our research suggests this is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, published example of a Mollweide Projection. The map is centered on Europe and is, indeed, Eurocentric, with color coding intended to represent colonial claims around the world. Tracks at sea illustrate popular maritime routes across the Atlantic and to various points, around Africa, and to Australia, China, and the East Indies. Text at bottom center by Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun (1816 - 1889) and Hermann Berghaus (1828 - 1890), the preeminent geographers of the day, praise the usefulness and practicality of the Mollweide / Babinet projection.

Mollweide of Babinet Projection

This map is on a projection model originally devised in 1805 Karl (or Carl) Brandan Mollweide (1774–1825) of Leipzig. At its core, the Mollweide is an equal-area pseudocylindrical projection that takes an elliptical form at a 2:1 ratio. It was intended to supplement the Mercator Projection, which, while excellent for navigation, was impractical for other uses due to its exaggeration of land areas at high altitudes. Although the mathematics of the projection can be traced to Mollweide's 1805 paper, it is unclear if it was published as a map before Babinet's work in the 1860s.

Although the essential mathematics behind the projection date to Mollweide's work in 1805, it was Jacques Babinet who reinvented and popularized it in France starting around 1857. It is unclear to what extent Babinet was aware of Mollweide's work, but he presented the projection to the Paris Académie des Sciences in an 1857 paper, and his work was subsequently described as an 'independent derivation of Mollweide Projection.' Babinet, who called it a Homalographic Projection, revised and championed the Mollweide Projection in a number of practical applications - thus attaching his name to it.

The present map is the earliest example that we have identified of the Mollweide/Babinet Projection, published c. 1860. In 1861, a reduced version was published in the Atlas Universel de Geographie of E. Bourdin.

Allegorical Surround

The map's most striking visual feature is the allegorical imagery filling the borders. In each corner, there is a female figure representing a continent: Europa (Greek) appears in the upper left, Asia (Persian) in the upper right, Africa (Egyptian) in the lower left, and America (Native American) in the lower right. At top center there appears an assortment of figures in traditional costumes. At bottom center left Persians or Arabians enter a desert city. At bottom center right Native Americans engage in trade with Europeans.

Publication History and Census

This map is undated, but we believe it to have been produced around 1860 and to be among the earliest printed examples of the Mollweide Projection. This is no simple work and many important French mapmakers and engravers took part in its production. The map was drafted by Georges Erhard Schièble on a projection designed and promoted by Jacques Babinet. The surround is the work of Firmin Gillot and Matin (unknown), and the lithographer Lèon Painlevé. Its publication is attributed to Ernest Bourdin and printing to Librairie L. Hachette.

The only other example we have seen was a mounted and varnished wall map format in exceedingly poor condition. The OCLC identifies two examples in instructional collections at the University of Chicago and at the State Library of New South Wales. The last example on the market sold at Sotheby's in 1999.