Le Comté Venaissin (1696) of Jean Bonfa, S.J.: A paradoxical map by an accidental cartographer

Le Comté Venaissin (1696) of Jean Bonfa, S. J.: A Paradoxical Map by an AccidentalCartographerAuthor(s): Alice StroupSource: Imago Mundi, Vol. 47 (1995), pp. 118-137Published by: Imago Mundi, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1151308 .

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Le Comte Venaissin (1696) of Jean Bonfa, S.J.:

A Paradoxical Map by an Accidental Cartographer

ALICE STROUP

ABSTRACT: Jean Bonfa's 1696 map offered the most accurate portrait in its day of the Comtat Venaissin. Commissioned when France threatened the region economically and politically, the map's topographical detail and allegorical themes exhibit a political geography favouring papal interests. Yet the map's coordinates for Avignon reflect neither Bonfa's skill as a positional astronomer nor his collaboration with the Paris Observatory. Finally, because local authorities controlled the distribution of Bonfa's map, it was not available to other cartographers.

KEYWORDS: Jean Bonfa, S.J., cartographer and astronomer; Comtat Venaissin, map of in 1696; Avignon, geographical coordinates; papal territory, in 17th century; topographical surveying, 17th century; Louis David, engraver; Jesuit cartography.

During the seventeenth century, the location of Avignon was better known than that of any other Francophone city except Paris, thanks to local traditions of astronomical observation and, after 1666, to collaboration with the Paris Observatory. Yet no seventeenth-century map did justice to the city or to its vicinity. Jean Bonfa, S.J. (1638-1724), astronomer and professor of theology and mathematics, partly rectified this negligence with a map of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin in 1696.1 But while the map's exceptional detail reflects Bonfa's personal survey of the region, other features pose problems of interpretation.

The Map

In 1696, Le Comti Venaissin par le R. P. Bonfa de la Compagnie de Jesus professeur des Mathematiques a Avignon was engraved in nine sheets by the Avignonese engraver, Louis David (Fig. 1). When mounted, the nine sheets form an ensemble measuring about 150 by 140 cm. The map is known from two copies at the Bibliotheque Ceccano (Avignon), one at the Musee du Vieil Avignon in the Palais des Papes (Avignon), and two

118 at the Musee Comtadin of the Bibliotheque

Inguimbertine (Carpentras). These are all from an eighteenth-century state of the copper plates sponsored by the marquis de Caumont, who had the dedication re-engraved in 1762 so as to replace the arms and name of Pope Innocent XII (1691- 1700) with those of Pope Clement XII (1758- 1769). To judge from the eight copper plates that survive at the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, the revision otherwise left the seventeenth-century version intact.2

Like any map, Le Comtf Venaissin reflects a variety of concerns. A close reading of the pictorial and written elements not only yields topographical, political, and astronomical information but also exposes the skills and sensibilities of the map's creators. Those creators include Bonfa, the Jesuit professor who did the survey for the map; David, the engraver who realised that survey on copper plates; and the governors of Avignon and of the Comtat Venaissin who commissioned the map. Yet despite the distinct domains of each party, respon- sibility for the map's specific scientific, aesthetic, and political features is not easily allocated.3

Those features are fused in several elements of the map. The papal crown and keys in each of the



Fig. 1. Le Comtj Venaissin par le R. P. Bonfa de la Compagnie de Jesus professeur des Mathimatiques a Avignon, engraved and printed by L. David in 1696, altered and reprinted in 1762. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

four corners, for example, add a political note to the

elegant border with its motif of leaves and berries. Topographic and pictorial details harmonize science and statecraft while reflecting dangerous political and economic times. Yet the scales of latitude and longitude just inside the border compromise the

map's exactitude. Only a close examination of the

map can yield an appreciation of its message and

significance. Certain decorative aspects of the map's title,

dedication, and scales (upper right and lower left

sheets, respectively) introduce its themes. The title is inscribed in a cartouche accompanied by

symbols-the crossed keys and crown-of papal authority (Fig. 2). The map's title, Le Comtj Venaissin par le R. P. Bonfa de la Compe de Iesus professeur des Mathematiques a Avignon [The Comtat Venaissin, by the Reverend Father Bonfa of the Company of Jesus, Professor of Mathematics at Avignon], defines the region and the author, both of which were allied to the papacy. Bracketing the cartouche are female figures which represent the Church and

the Comtat in an allegory of sacred authority and secular fidelity; David has hidden his Latinized signature in the pedestal beneath the feet of the latter. Taken together with the rhetorical motto 119



Fig. 2. The allegorical title cartouche of Jean Bonfa's Le Comte Venaissin. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

below-'Quid nos separabit' [What will separate

us]-the ensemble affirms the status of Avignon

and the Comtat Venaissin as papal territories, a

timely political message since the French had just

returned the region to papal control. Allegorical groups accompanying the dedication

and bar scales (Fig. 3) are equally telling. The

ensemble on the left bank of the Rhone River

carries a dedication from 'Ses tres humbles tres

obeissants et tres fideles suiets et ser[viteurs]' [His

most humble, obedient, and faithful subjects and

servants] to the reigning pope (originally Innocent

XII but here reworked for Clement XIII). Below the

120 banner, figures representing the four parts of the

world gesture toward the motto 'In Omnem

Terram' [Over all the earth]. They are associated

with symbols of wealth, power, and learning

(precious gems and shells, papal sceptre, armour,

book, terrestrial globe-the last three attributes

commonly associated with the Jesuits). This group

proclaims the sway of papal authority over the

world, an ecclesiastical imperium that owed much to the Order of Jesus.

Hovering over the right bank of the Rhone, five

cherubs dance in the heavens above the map's

scales. One scale equates twenty-five Paris leagues

with one degree of latitude or longitude, while the

other compares the Parisian and the local league.



_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I _

Fig. 3. The allegorical dedication and scales of Jean Bonfa's Le Comtej Venaissin, as altered in the eighteenth century to replace the name and insignia of Pope Innocent XII with those of Pope Clement XIII. (Courtesy Biblioth~que Ceccano,

Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

To underscore the links between heaven and earth, the cherubs gesture (with compass, quadrant, telescope, celestial globe, and papal cross used as a cross-staff) toward a banner bearing the mottoes 'Erit Solutum et in Coelis' [It will be fulfilled even in the heavens] and 'Dabit His Quoque Fines' [He will give them lands also]. This group, therefore,

proclaims the liberation by divine will of papal

territory from the French; it perhaps uses the

ambiguity of 'solutum' to associate that event with Bonfa's survey of the region.4

These embellishments celebrate the return of the

territory to its traditional sovereign, the pope. Likewise, they underscore the Jesuit precept that learning, properly applied, serves both transient and eternal ends. They also honour the temporal and spiritual reach of papal authority. Finally, they associate that reach with the activities of the Company of Jesus. On a first reading, therefore, Le Comti Venaissin celebrates a marriage of faith, learning, and politics, a union abetted and exem- plified by Bonfa's own order.5

In contrast, the map's topographical and astronomical features are at once more innovative and 121



more paradoxical. Before Bonfa, no map of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin had done justice to either regional features or papal sovereignty. Most had simply copied earlier versions, some lacked latitude and longitude scales, and a few had been carelessly printed backwards so that Avignon seemed to be perched on the western bank of the Rhone.6

Le Comtf Venaissin put Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin 'on the map' topographically, politically, and astronomically. But while Bonfa's situation and experience allowed him to solve problems in all these domains, the map is paradoxical. First, he used his own arduous survey of the region to supply new particulars of relief, sites, and communications routes. Yet the map's design remains aesthetically and thematically conservative, and the full extent of papal territory is not depicted. Second, Bonfa and David underscored their patrons' allegiances by embellishing title, dedication, and scales and by identifying the region's many castles and churches. But some of those patrons were dissatisfied. Finally, Bonfa could have situated Avignon more accurately by latitude and longitude than any previous cartographer, but the idiosyncratic coordinates adopted for Avignon do not reflect the best data available and the source of this error remains a mystery. Before investigating these problems, however, it is useful to review the career of this innovative, albeit accidental, cartographer.

The Career of Jean Bonfa

Jean Bonfa was a Jesuit professor of theology and mathematics. Yet his map is an apt representation of his life: it embodies the double pursuit of sacred and secular interests by a savant who kept one eye on the heavens and the other on his own career. Only the barest outline of Bonfa's life is known: born in Nimes on 30 May 1638, he joined the Society of Jesus on 31 January 1654, taught mathematics (and eventually theology) at Jesuit colleges in Grenoble (early 1670s) and Avignon (late 1670s and from 1683), taught the principles of geometry and hydrography as professor royal at the Marseille Arsenal (1680-1682), published pamph- lets and articles on scientific instruments of his invention as well as on his astronomical observations, and cooperated with astronomers at the Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris, of which he became a corresponding member in 1699.7

122 Few traces of Bonfa's work remain. Besides his

map only about a dozen publications and two dozen letters, a monumental sundial, and some lecture notes on applied mathematics and theology survive.8 Complementing these are scattered references to Bonfa in letters by other astronomers, in municipal and provincial records, in the correspondence between Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) and his intendant Jean-Baptiste Brodart about the affairs of the Marseille Arsenal, as well as in minutes or publications of the Academie Royale des Sciences and the Royal Society in London.9 References to Bonfa's map are found in three of his surviving letters and in minutes of provincial deliberations.'0

As a Jesuit professor, Bonfa's primary responsi- bility was to teach practical theology and applied mathematics. He also sought notice as a mathematical practitioner and astronomer, both locally and in Rome and Paris. He established for himself a modest scientific career that, with the exception of his map, was shaped primarily by French concerns. At the Marseille Arsenal, he served French naval interests by instructing pilots and officers in hydrography and basic geometry. He campaigned for recognition by corresponding with Jesuit power-brokers in Paris (Appendix 2, Letters 1 and 3); success obliged him to adopt the research programme and methods of the astronomers in the Academie Royale des Sciences, and he presented his observations for inclusion in their cartographic projects. Thus, although Bonfa lived most of his life in papal territory, his language, culture, and scholarship were essentially French.

Bonfa's map of the Comtat Venaissin, however, was different. In producing it, Bonfa embraced local and papal agendas that were anti-French. Ironi- cally, this meant that his exceptional accomplishment would be overlooked by later cartographers.

A Topographic Reading

Le Comti Venaissin is a singular accomplishment. Its topographic opulence makes a strong visual impact, offers information that previous maps had omitted, and amplifies political messages intro- duced in the decorative allegories. Before turning to the political and astronomical issues raised by this map, therefore, its representation of the Comtat's physical geography requires examination.

The map of Jean Bonfa and Louis David celebrates the Comtat's distinctive topography. Illustrating the tenuous detente that humans achieved with the rugged Provensal landscape, it



Fig. 4. Mont Ventoux bracketed by the Toulourenc and Nesque rivers, as represented in Bonfa's Le Comtj Venaissin. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

depicts stately towns, churches, and chateaux

delicately perched on hills or hugging river banks.

By comparison with other maps of the region, this

one is exceptionally rich in information. It traces

rivers and tributaries to their sources, shows the

positions of mountain ranges, and in general

illustrates topographic relief better even than

Egnatio Danti's sixteenth-century draft." Likewise,

Le Comte Venaissin provides more place names than

any other map. A contemporary counted about

eighty towns and villages in the Comtat, and Bonfa

and David depict all of these and more.'2 Besides

showing nearly all of the parishes and towns with

fairs, the map includes little-known pilgrimage sites

and small churches not included in the parish

hierarchy until the eighteenth century. Finally, it 123



Fig. 5. The Sorgue River valley with its towns and chateaux, surveyed in April 1687 by Bonfa and Mignard, as represented in Le Comte Venaissin. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

identifies tourist attractions (a feature missing from many seventeenth-century maps of the region) by means of townscapes, sketches of natural monuments like 'les geants' (Fig. 2) and Mont Ventoux (Fig. 4), and labels such as 'la source de la Sorgue' for the fontaine de Vaucluse' (Fig. 5).13

Because Le Comtj Venaissin reflects decisions made by either Bonfa or David, there may be discrepancies between what Bonfa mapped and

124 what David depicted. Although Bonfa chose David

in 1691 and helped negotiate the terms of the engraver's contract, David himself travelled the Comtat in order to prepare the map and by his own admission went beyond his original instructions.'4 Some of David's choices depended on how Bonfa worked in the field; indeed, the map boasts so many chateaux, towns, and churches because such high-lying monuments were essential in establish- ing baselines. Other choices reflect the engraver's customary carelessness. 15 But aesthetic and political



considerations inspired David to expand on Bonfa's survey of the Comtat. Because the Comtat's borders were irregular, for example, David filled out the edges of the map with the adjacent French and Dutch territories. Because David eschewed the stylized signs that some cartographers were adopt- ing, he decorated the map with recognizable (if inexact) views that evoke local pride; thus the palace of the popes rises imperiously over the city- state of Avignon (Fig. 6) and an imposing wall with towers stands sentinel over Carpentras (Fig. 7), the capital of the Comtat Venaissin. 16

But the map's topographical particulars reflect, above all, Bonfa's skills as a mathematical practitioner, his careful preparations for the task of surveying the Comtat, and his discipline in the field. As professor of mathematics, Bonfa taught the principles and uses of geometry, and his own practical skills were considerable. At Grenoble, he had designed a wall mural that described the annual path of the sun.'7 He also constructed his own clocks, micrometers, and angle-measuring instruments for astronomical observations, as well as a simple surveying instrument; manuals describ- ing their construction and use are found in the Journal des Sfavans and Mimoires de Treivoux.'8 In principle, Bonfa's knowledge and experience suited him to the task of surveying the Comtat.

In practice, Bonfa proved to be conscientious and thorough, even sacrificing his astronomical studies to his survey of the papal territory. He wrote in November 1686 to Thomas Gouye (1650-1725), a Jesuit mathematician at the College Royal who collaborated with the Academie Royale des Scien- ces, about his preparations for the survey of the Comtat Venaissin: 'I have already ordered a large iron level which will have a telescopic sight, plus some other instruments which will be necessary to survey this whole region and to make an exact map of it' (Appendix 2, Letter 1).19 These preparations left Bonfa no time to observe sunspots, even though they were one of his particular interests.

Bonfa began field work the following spring. For a good part of April 1687, he and his assistant Mignard made the town of L'Isle on the Sorgue River their base.20 By mid-May, Bonfa had spent about a month travelling around a considerable part of the Comtat (and so he failed to observe the solar eclipse of 11 May with his usual precision). To judge from the absence of astronomical observations by Bonfa between 11 May 1687 and 13 September 1689, the survey seems to have

absorbed his energies for the better part of three years. In that period, he explored the region in more detail than any previous cartographer, as is clear from the sheer number of castles, villages, churches, bridges, secondary and tertiary roads, mule tracks, and barns situated on the map, which surpassed previous topographic treatments of the region.2'

Despite this wealth of information, Le Comtt Venaissin is also marked by omissions. For political reasons, the map neglects parishes outside the Comtat, where Bonfa and Mignard were not required to survey. Natural resources are neglected: of the mines, mills, and forests that enriched the region, there is no hint. Despite the importance of water-borne traffic, the natural tributaries of rivers are not distinguished from man-made canals, and regular ferry crossings are not marked. In general, the map shows less detail in regions that were sparsely populated due to the terrain. Finally, the southeastern border of the Comtat is missing where the Durance River was impassable.22 Some omissions reflect political and economic preoccupations but others result from the practical obstacles to surveying in the region.

In particular, bad weather and rough terrain prevented Bonfa from mapping the entire papal territory. Rain or fog could delay work indefinitely because the task of taking elevations and establish- ing baselines depended on clear visibility. In the spring of 1687, for example, fog in the marshlands along the Sorgue River interfered as Bonfa and Mignard tried to establish the distances from L'Isle to the chateaux of Velleron (to the north), Le Thor (to the west), and Touzon (north of Le Thor) (Fig. 5).

Likewise, the rugged Provenqal mountains were 'very inconvenient' for surveying and made many places inaccessible to Bonfa and Mignard (Appen- dix 2, Letter 2). Travel was especially slow and arduous when rivers were not navigable or where bridges and roads were in bad repair. Of the three official categories of roads in the Comtat, only the post roads linking Avignon to Orange and extending up to Pierrelatte were maintained by the Comtat's budget. Secondary roads connecting important towns like Carpentras with smaller settlements were maintained with municipal funds supplemented occasionally with monies from the Comtat. Third-class roads, linking smaller settlements, got no subvention from the Comtat. In the mountainous areas to the east, voyagers 125



Fig. 6. The city of Avignon, set on the Rhone River, with its walls and distinctive sites, as represented in Jean Bonfa's Le Comtj Venaissin. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)

Fig. 7. The city of Carpentras, situated on the Lauzon River and depicted with its walls and distinctive buildings, as 126 represented in Jean Bonfa's Le Comte' Venaissin. (Courtesy Bibliotheque Ceccano, Avignon; Photo Daspet.)



depended on mule tracks and transhumance paths worn into the rock by herds seeking pasture.23

Although such impediments persuaded other cartographers of the Comtat to copy existing maps, they were one of the incentives for Bonfa to go into the field. It was in order to improve transport in the region that Bonfa and his assistant walked 'with compass and pencil in hand', following waterways to their sources and seeking out every inhabited place (Appendix 2, Letter 2).

Le Comti Venaissin substantiates Bonfa's episto- lary avowals of thoroughness. Despite some omissions, its extensive corrections of earlier maps confirm that Bonfa and his assistant surveyed the Comtat extensively. Moreover, the concentration of detail between Avignon, Carpentras, and the Sorgue River valley not only marks the demo- graphic and economic centre of the Comtat but also reflects the political origins of Bonfa's map.

Bonfa's Political Geography

The political geography of Avignon, the Comtat, and neighbouring lands was complex. In the seventeenth century, the territory now called Provence or the Vaucluse was split into French, Dutch, and papal domains, with Louis XIV claiming the entire area for France. Every map of the region between 1627 and 1727 staked out a claim for one party or another. Links to the kingdom of France were suggested by associating the region with the French provinces of Languedoc and Provence,24 while Dutch cartographers featured the Principality of Orange with its ancient ruins.25 Bonfa and David, however, stressed Rome's interests by showing Avignon and the Comtat as under papal dominion.

Even well-educated contemporaries misunder- stood the relationship between papal city and papal territory, mistakenly assuming that Avignon belonged to the Comtat and served as its capital.26 City and province, however, had separate laws, customs, and governing bodies, and these were distinct from papal rights and representatives. As capital of the Comtat, Carpentras was where the Assemble'es generates des Stats met and where the Recteur, or governor, had his residence. As a separate city-state, Avignon was governed by its own consuls. Roman authority over Avignon and the Comtat was represented by the papal vice- legate, who resided in Avignon.27

All three political entities sponsored Bonfa's map, which was initiated in 1686 by Avignon and

the papal vice-legate and printed in 1696 thanks to the Assemblees generates des Stats. City-state and province worked independently of each other (although in concert with the papal vice-legate) and were driven by different motives in commis- sioning the map. The economic interests of Avignon inspired the map's plentiful and accurate detail, while the political interests of the pope and the Comtat's Assemblees shaped the map's decorative and allegorical features. This political genesis also explains why the map and its maker became familiar to local historians.

The map was born of rivalry between France and the papacy. Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin, both under papal control since the fourteenth century, became pawns in Louis XIV's contest with Pope Innocent XI during the 1680s. Among the French strategies of intimidation was a plan to cut Avignon off from the Rhone, thereby strangling the local economy. In response, city officials conceived the idea of a canal that would ally Avignon's commerce with the Comtat instead of with France. As Bonfa put it to Gouye: 'Mon- seigneur our Vice-legate and Messieurs our Consuls have asked me to undertake a canal, which would run the length of the Comtat for the transport of the region's foodstuffs. The dike being constructed on the French side in order to close the Rhone to us makes this a necessity' (Appendix 2, Letter 1). While the papal representatives worked through diplomatic channels to protect the region, city officials were planning a canal that would link the principal towns in the Comtat.28

Once the papal vice-legate and the city consuls had taken the decision to build a canal, they chose Bonfa for the task of surveying the region, funded his purchase of surveying instruments, and followed his progress in the field. After he had identified likely routes for a canal and Avignonese officials had selected their preferred route, Bonfa was to return to the field to 'survey all places through which the canal might pass' (Appendix 2, Letter 3).

For the preliminary survey, Bonfa and Mignard mapped not only large towns 'but also the slightest village and the smallest farmsteads, so long as they were named' (Appendix 2, Letter 2), in order to identify the sources of produce and the route most advantageous for commerce. Bonfa found considerable interest in the proposed canal among inhabitants of the Comtat. 127



Wherever we visited, everyone testified that there was no more useful project for the entire Comtat and expressed the strongest desire to see it launched soon. They all assure us that they do not know what to do with their foodstuffs, that they have wheat, wine, wood, oil, and much more than would suffice for the province, and that they would welcome opportunities for trade, which would bring not a little money into the land (Appendix 2, Letter 2).

But only an emergency could justify such an

expenditure. By annexing the papal domains in 1688 and returning them in 1689, the French

assured Avignon's access to the Rhone and saved the city's economy. When Bonfa completed his

survey, therefore, the cost of building a new canal was no longer warranted.

After the election of Antonio Pignatelli to the

papacy as Innocent XII in January 1691, another set of local authorities conceived a new use for Bonfa's survey: they would print a map of the papal territory. Arguing that a map would be 'extremely useful to the region and satisfying to all its inhabitants', the Assemblee generate des tlus des Stats du Comtat Venaissin on 23 April 1691 commissioned Bonfa to complete work on his map and prepare it for engraving, with the stipulation that the finished product be accurate and beautiful. For the next five years, the Assemblee generate des plus-either as a whole or through its designees-supervised and paid for work on the map, supplied copper for the plates and claimed ownership of them, and authorized distribution of the map to each member of the Assemblee generate des lus.29

Anti-French sentiment, therefore, twice prompted the creation of Le Comti Venaissin. Begotten in the 1680s from Avignonese fears of a French economic stranglehold over the city, it came to term in the 1690s when the Comtat's governors wished to celebrate the restoration of papal sovereignty. The economic origins of the map are implicit in the sinuous delineation of the Comtat's waterways, while its political origins are reflected in the abundance of religious sites, in the recognizable views of towns and chateaux, and in the evocations of antiquities and natural wonders. Taken together, these details articulate regional gloire and allegiance to Rome.

This message appeared at a sensitive moment: although Louis XIV had returned the territory to papal control in 1689, for strategic reasons he was still asserting the historic ties of Avignon and the

128 Comtat with France. After all, Bonfa's map was

completed during the War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697), when the proximity to French Provence of the Dutch Principality of Orange, the papal Comtat Venaissin, and the Kingdom of Savoy threatened French security on the Mediterranean front of what was effectively a global war. As surviving broadsheets in the abbe Renaudot's papers show, propagandists touted Louis's claims to the Comtat during the 1690s and tried to overcome resentful memories of the recent occupation by reminding the populace of their traditional ties to France.30 Indeed, whether papal vice-legates or royal governors were in charge, the Comtat depended on a broad range of commercial and legal privileges extended by France; as 'regnicoles', Comtadins were something like natur- alized subjects of the French king. But this dual affiliation imperilled order when pope and king were at odds, and Bonfa's map was twice used to protect local interests and assert papal rights during such altercations.3'

Bonfa's map united propaganda and topography better than contemporaneous maps of the region. Yet the officials who paid for the map were unhappy. Apparently, the cause was not David's curious misspellings of place names (e.g., 'Nottes' for Noves; Fig. 5), which the engraver could easily have corrected. Nor did shrinkage of the territory or inaccurate city views prompt a complaint. Rather, officials chafed at the expense of the undertaking. Besides the outlays for equipment, travel, food, and lodging necessitated by the original survey, Bonfa had required an additional 50 livres in 1692, probably to prepare the map for engraving. That request was relatively modest, but copper for the plates was expensive, and engraving and printing were costly. David's fee alone was more than 400 livres 'grosse monnaie'. Costs were a particular concern after the famine of 1693 and 1694 when local treasuries were short of cash. Moreover, the map had been commissioned by the Comtat's Assemblee generate des plus, but the bills were passed along to the larger Assemblee generate du Pays, which complained about the map's cost.32 Whatever its explicit messages about political hegemony, therefore, Le Comti Venaissin was the progeny of economic and political turmoil.

An Astronomical Puzzle

Besides placing Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin topographically and politically, Bonfa's map also located sites by latitude and longitude.



Lacking detailed surveys or essential astronomical data, cartographers usually accomplished this difficult task by educated guess-work or by copy- ing what had been previously done. As a result, seventeenth-century maps were inconsistent with respect to the geographical coordinates of towns, of political boundaries, and of natural sites.

Bonfa's position was different from that of other cartographers because he was both a surveyor and an astronomer. The heir to Athanasius Kircher's observatory at the Jesuit college in Avignon, Bonfa was arguably the best astronomer in Provence between 1678 and 1696. Before 1686, Bonfa's astronomical interests had been catholic: he wrote on sunspots and the comet of 1680, observed eclipses and the satellites of Jupiter, and was mapping the fixed stars. After 1686, his astronomical activities concentrated on eclipses because these would serve local and Parisian cartographic projects. This narrower focus was the fruit of Bonfa's campaign for recognition from Paris and also of his obligation to survey the Comtat.

In his contacts with Paris, Bonfa emphasized the utility of his astronomical observations for mapmakers. His communications to fellow Jesuits in Paris-notably Thomas Gouye and Fransois d'Aix de La Chaize (1624-1709)-spilled over with articles on scientific instruments, eclipse observations, and research proposals. He particularly pressed for a global cartographic venture to be sponsored jointly by the French king and the Company of Jesus (Appendix 2, Letters 1 and 3), and he volunteered his services for such an undertaking. Bonfa counted on Gouye and La Chaize to arrange publication of his writings in the Journal des Sfavans and especially to pass his work along to the Academie Royale des Sciences. Inspired by his survey of the Comtat, Bonfa wrote directly to the Academy at the end of May 1687 to suggest an exchange: if academician Jacques Borelly would send some objective lenses (on offer to astronomers who read the Journal des Sfavans), Bonfa would use them to travel 'from town to town in order to take longitudes from the immersions of the satellites' of Jupiter, and send his data directly to the Academy.33

The Academy enlisted Bonfa in its cartographic projects, specifically asking him to help correct the longitude of Avignon. After 1687, Bonfa sent his eclipse observations to Jean Dominique Cassini and Philippe de La Hire at the Paris Observatory. In

exchange, he learned what the Parisians were accomplishing.34

Between 1686 and 1696-the years when he was preparing the map of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin-Bonfa had access to the most up-to-date information about the coordinates of Avignon. He had developed the raw data himself by observing solar and lunar eclipses, and he was probably familiar with the Paris Observatory's calculation that Avignon was 2030' east of Paris.35 Bonfa presumably got these data directly from Cassini and La Hire.

Bonfa could, therefore, have adopted his and the Academy's figures for the longitude of Avignon and then triangulated from his own Avignon meridian. Thus his Comti Venaissin should have located Avignon and the habitations of the Comtat more precisely than contemporaneous maps, because the Academy's values (to which Bonfa himself had contributed) were the most accurate available at the time and because Bonfa was a skilful surveyor.

Although Bonfa's map adopts the Academy's value for the latitude of Avignon, two striking dissimilarities-with respect to prime meridian and the longitude of Avignon-between Bonfa's and Cassini's cartographic practice are puzzling. For prime meridian, Le Comti Venaissin followed convention and adopted the Canary Isles instead of either the Paris meridian or the Avignon meridian based at Bonfa's own observatory tower in the Jesuit college. Nonetheless, it would have been a fairly simple matter for Bonfa to calculate the distance between the Canary Isles and Paris and between Paris and Avignon, using the Academy's data. For the longitude of Avignon, however, Le Comti Venaissin followed no known model; it cannot be correlated with Cassini's or any other contemporaneous values.

Disagreement about Avignon's geographical coordinates exemplifies the central problem for early modern cartographers.36 While mapmakers knew that Avignon was situated on the left bank of the Rhone, few agreed where to locate it. Between 1627 and 1715, they placed Avignon anywhere between 43009' and 440 north of the equator, and anywhere between 22019' and 26035' east of the island of Ferro in the Canary Islands. Bonfa's Le Comti Venaissin situated Avignon between 43050' and 43053' north, and between 24051' and 24055' east.37

For latitude, Bonfa's map adopted a figure close to that accepted by both the Academy and Bonfa's 129



Avignonese astronomer-friend Jean-Charles Gallet. Other cartographers favoured latitudes ranging from 43009' to 43022', or from 43030' to 43035',

or at 43047'48', or from 43057' to 440. But on Le

Comti Venaissin Avignon is located close to the value of 43050' given by Gallet in his Aurora Lavenica (1670) and by the Academy in its Carte corrige'e (1693 [1682]). Moreover, Bonfa's northernmost value for Avignon (43053') was nearer the modern value of 43057' than that of any contemporary; only after 1696 did Delisle, Gautier, and Nolin fils place Avignon at or near that value. Correct latitudes were essential not only to establish the position of a given site but also to determine the overall size of any territory, a problem that was solved-incorrectly-in the case of Le Comti Venais- sin by shrinking the Comtat from north to south. Such a shrinkage could reflect a decision by the engraver David, or, equally, it could have resulted from the preoccupation of contemporary astronomers with longitudes to the neglect of latitude. Whatever the map's coordinates for the Comtat as a whole, the unusual latitude given to Avignon seems to link Le Comtf Venaissin to Bonfa's Parisian and local colleagues.

Le Comtf Venaissin is more idiosyncratic with respect to longitude. Although the conventional prime meridian-the island of Ferro in the Canary Islands (about 230 west of Avignon)-was used instead of the Paris meridian of the Royal Observatory, Avignon was not placed at any of the conventional points, that is, about 220, 25030',

or 260 east. Instead, on Bonfa's map, Avignon appears between 24051' and 24055' east. No contemporaneous map placed Avignon there. Only Vincenzo Coronelli's Isolario (1696) and Louis Cundier's Carte de Provence (c.1640) come close to that value, but they put Avignon at 2503 1', or at least half a degree farther east.

More surprisingly, given Bonfa's close ties with the Paris Observatory, Avignon does not appear at 230 or 23020', where the Academy placed it. Based in part on Bonfa's own eclipse observations, Cassini had determined that Avignon was 2030' east of Paris. Starting with that figure, Bonfa had then to calculate the distance between Paris and the island of Ferro. Here the Academy offered two different values: Bonfa could have adopted either La Hire's estimate that Paris was about 20030' east of Ferro or the subsequent estimate of the Neptune Franfois that Paris was 20050' east of Ferro.38 Had Bonfa used La

130 Hire's value, Le Comt6 Venaissin would have shown

Avignon at 230 east. Had he followed the Neptune FranCois, it would have placed Avignon at 23020' east. Alternatively, Bonfa could have combined Cassini's calculation with one of the conventional longitudes for Paris-between 23020' and 23030' east of Ferro-and placed Avignon about 260 east of Ferro. Instead Le Comti Venaissin placed Avignon nearly 250 east of Ferro, thereby spurning Bonfa's astronomical observations, his collaboration with the Academy, and his mathematical abilities.

The map's idiosyncrasies may reflect the work of either David or Bonfa. The value for latitude approaches the figure adopted by Bonfa's colleagues, but the disregard of known seventeenth-century models for longitude suggests that David, not Bonfa, determined the map's longitude scale. That is, David could have erred in engraving the numbers designating longitude, or he could have taken the value for longitude from an unknown map. Alternatively, political circum- stances or the special ties of Bonfa's order to the papacy could have encouraged him to spurn Parisian data in favour of unidentified local or Italian figures for longitude.39 Whatever the explanation, it is perplexing that Bonfa, who had dedicated more than ten years of astronomical observation to determining the correct coordinates for Avignon, did not insist on situating the papal city according to the best astronomical data available to him.

Conclusion

Jean Bonfa's map of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin is at once a remarkable and a paradoxical achievement. Ironically, for an astronomer who had sought recognition abroad, the audience for his most original accomplishment was limited to the Comtat Venaissin. Bonfa created the best map of the region, a topographical masterpiece that demonstrates mathematical skill, physical stamina, and political shrewdness. Indeed, Bonfa's interest in the practical uses of mathematics, combined with his skills in positional astronomy and topographic surveying, gave him a distinct edge among late seventeenth-century cartographers. He was in a position to harmonize geographical and astronomical cartography.

Not surprisingly, then, Bonfa's map is innovative. Its exceptional topographic detail provides more information about waterways and habitations than any other map of the Comtat Venaissin before the eighteenth century. That accomplishment



reflects Avignonese needs and Bonfa's assiduity as a surveyor. Yet, given Bonfa's skill as a positional astronomer and his contacts with the Paris Observatory, the map is also paradoxical: the value given for the longitude of Avignon disre- gards the best data available, even though Bonfa had contributed to these himself. There is as yet no adequate explanation of why Bonfa's astronomical knowledge was not applied to the coordinates of Avignon in Le Comti Venaissin.

A final irony of Bonfa's Comt6 Venaissin is that, because it glorified local and papal instead of French interests, it had no influence. Because the Assemblees of the Comtat rather than the printer kept the plates, the map was never distributed commercially. Few copies were pulled, and these seem to have disappeared into the cabinets of officials. No copies are presently known of those pulled in the seventeenth century. There is nothing to suggest that the map influenced any subsequent cartographer. Whatever influence Bonfa enjoyed as an astronomer would have been exerted only indirectly, through the publications of the Academie Royale des Sciences which eighteenth- century 'geographes de cabinet' such as Delisle, Jaillot, and d'Anville combed for urban coordinates. In the end, therefore, the political geography of Le Comte Venaissin doomed Bonfa's remarkable topographic accomplishment to undeserved oblivion.

Acknowledgements: For astute suggestions at several stages of the research, I wish to thank Catherine Becquaert, J. Emonet, Monique Pelletier, Thomas B. Settle, Deborah Jean Warner, Gregg de Young, and the referees and editors of Imago Mundi. I am grateful to the Taylor Institution (Oxford), the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Bard College for travel and research grants. Technical details about known copies of Bonfa's map are due to the kind cooperation of Isabelle Battez, Conservateur General of the Bibliotheque Inguim- bertine (Carpentras); Franqoise de Forbin, Conservateur at the Bibliotheque Ceccano (Avignon); and Dominique Vingtain, Conservateur at the Musee du Vieil Avignon at the Palais des Papes (Avignon).

Manuscript submitted March 1994. Revised text received October 1994.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. On the Provensal astronomical tradition see G.

Bigourdan, 'Sur quelques observatoires de la region provensale au XVIIe siecle. L'Observatoire d'Avignon', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Acadhmie des Sciences 164 (1917): 253-59, and 'Sur diverses stations astronomiques fransaises du XVIIe siecle', ibid. 166 (1918): 269-75; Jean-Marie Homet, Astronomie et astron- omes en Provence, 1680-1730 (Aix-en-Provence, tdisud, 1982); F. de Dainville, La Geiographie des humanistes: Les

Jesuites et l'education de la sociitifranfaise (Paris, Beauchesne & fils, 1940). The correspondence of Provensal astronomers Balthazar-Fransois Merles de Beauchamps (c. 1622- 1702), Minim Louis Feuillee (1660-1732), and Jean- Charles Gallet (1637-1713) affords the liveliest glimpse after 1660 of a closely knit but competitive group whose observations in Avignon were sometimes attended by the powerful archbishop and papal vice-legate: Archives de l'Observatoire, Paris (hereafter A.O.), MS B, 4, 10; Biblio- theque Nationale, Paris (hereafter B.N.), MS n. a. fr. 6197, fol. 95-96.

Bonfa figures in the monumental studies of Jesuits and their colleges: Carlos Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, 12 vols. (Bruxelles, Schepers; Paris, Picard, 1890-1960), vol. 1, cols. 693-94, 1711-13, vol. 8, cols. 1863-64; Augustin de Backer and Aloys de Backer, Bibliotheque des eicrivains de la Compagnie de Jeisus ou notices bibliographiques, 3d ser., 7 vols. (Liege, L. Grandmont- Donders, 1853-1861); Pierre Delattre (ed.), Les Atablissements des Jisuites en France depuis quatre sieces. Ripertoire topo-bibliographique, 5 vols. (Enghien and Wetteren, Institut superieur de Theologie et Imprimerie De Meester freres, 1940-1957). Biographical encyclope- dias mention him: J. Balteau et al. (eds.), Dictionnaire de biographie franfaise, 17 vols. (Paris, Libraire Letouzey et An6, 1933-1986), vol. 6, col. 949; Jean-Chretien Ferdi- nand Hoefer (ed.), Nouvelle biographie generate, 44 vols. (Paris, Firmin Didot, 1857-1864), vol. 6, col. 565; J. C. Poggendorff, Biographisch-Litterarisches Handwdrterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, 2 vols. (Leipzig, J. A. Barth, 1863), vol. 1, col. 232.

Bonfa's memory survives in local histories: Casimir- Fransois-Henri Barjavel, Dictionnaire historique, biographi- que et bibliographique du dipartement de Vaucluse, 2 vols. (Carpentras, L. Devillario, 1841), 1: 253; Joseph Fornery, Histoire du Comti Venaissin et de la vile d'Avignon [1910], 3 vols. (Marseille, Laffitte Reprints, 1982), 2: 354-57; Joseph Girard et al., Le Collge des Jisuites d`Avignon, 1565-1950 (Avignon, Bellegarde, 1950); Leon Menard, Histoire civile, ecclisiastique, et littiraire de la vile de Nismes, 7 vols. (Paris, Chez Hugues Daniel Chaubert & Claude Herissant fils, 1744-1758), 6: 516-17; Michel Nicolas, Histoire littiraire de Nimes et des localitis voisines qui forment actuellement le departement du Gard, 3 vols. (Nimes, Ballivet et Fabre, 1854). His clock with pasteboard pendulum is mentioned by G. H. Baillie, Clocks and Watches: An Historical Bibliography (London, N. A. G. Press, Ltd., 1951), 109. For studies of his sundial see n. 17, below. 2. See Appendix 1. The map is reproduced in Mireille

Pastoureau, Jean-Marie Homet, and Georges Pichard, Rivages et terres de Provence: cartographie d'une province ([Avignon], editions A. Barthdlemy, 1991), and in several local histories. Leopold Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David, graveur a Avignon (1667-1718) (Paris, A. Picard, 1891), 6- 13, gives details and dimensions slightly different from those supplied here. Barjavel, Dictionnaire historique . . . de Vaucluse (see note 1), reported that copies of the map could be found in private collections; see also Bibliotheque publique (Avignon), MS 2387, fo. 8v. A typographical error by E. Soullier in Les Jesuites a Marseille aux XVIIe et XVIIIe sieces d'apr6s les documents recueillis par le P. R. Terret (Avignon, F. Seguin, 1899), 53-54, and copied by Dainville, La Geiographie des humanistes (see note 1), 435, erroneously refers to maps made by Bonfa c. 1669. The present discussion is based on the maps now at the Bibliotheque Ceccano, examined when they were at the Bibliotheque Municipale. Inferences about the copper 131



plates are based on photographs and correspondence at the start of this research. 3. J. B. Harley, 'The evaluation of early maps: towards a

methodology', Imago Mundi 22 (1968): 62-74, offers useful guidelines for analysis. 4. I am grateful to Mary Pedley for helping to interpret

mottoes and allegories. On the decorative elements, compare Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2), 11-12. On the assumption that a degree of latitude equalled a degree of longitude and on efforts to measure the linear value of a degree of latitude see John Milton Hirschfield, The Acadmnie Royale des Sciences 1666-1683 [1957] (New York, Arno Press, 1981), chap. 10. 5. See Peter Dear, 'Jesuit mathematical science and the

reconstitution of experience in the early seventeenth century', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 18 (1987): 133-75; Rivka Feldhay, 'Knowledge and salvation in Jesuit culture', Science in Context 1 (1987): 195-213. As engraver for the Jesuit college in Avignon and several guilds, David became adept in expressing such values: Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2); J.-F. Cerquand, L'Imagerie et la littirature populaires dans le Comtat Venaissin (1660-1830). Essai d'un catalogue (Avignon, Seguin Freres, 1883), 2-5; Roger-Armand Weigert, Inventaire du fonds franfais. Graveurs du XVIIe siele (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, 1939-), vol. 3 (1954), 'Louis David (1 644-c.1746)'. 6. See, for example, the Harvard University copies of

Vincenzo Coronelli, Contadi d'Avignone e Venassino, in La Francia (1690), vol. 3, and Isolario (1696). I am grateful to Gregg de Young for this observation. 7. See note 1 for the published sources. I am grateful to

the Mairie de Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rh6ne) for information about Bonfa's maternal relatives, the Ance or Anse family, in the Registre des Baptemes de l'Eglise paroissiale de Sainte Marthe at Tarascon, and to the Archives Departementales (Nimes) for information about Bonfa's baptism. 8. The nearly complete bibliography of Bonfa's works

cited by Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus (see note 1), omits the following manuscripts: Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, Lewis Evans Library, 'Mathematicorum tractatus ... a R. P. Bonfa societate Jesu Compositi quibus adiecta sunt omnium ... poetarum Selectissima Carmina Simula plura divina . . . Avenione 1707' (563 pp., with plates, illus., table of contents, in Latin and French); Archives de l'Academie des Sciences de l'Institut de France, Paris (hereafter AdS), Registre des proc8s-verbaux, vol. 7, fos. 227-33; A.O., MS B, 4, 9 (letters from Bonfa to Jean Dominique Cassini and Philippe de La Hire, written from Avignon and dated 22 and 28 June, 9 July 1694; 23 Nov. 1695; 18 May, 11 Nov. 1696; 31 Oct. 1697; 16 March, 12 April, 27 Nov. 1699; 24 Feb. 170 1), and MS B, 5, 8 (Observation of lunar eclipse of 22 Jan. 1693); B.N. MS fr. 24427, fos. 35-42 (see Appendix 2, for two of the four letters). Bonfa, 'Binocle geometrique avec une nouvelle maniere tr8s ais&e de mesurer avec cet instrument les longueurs inaccessibles & de lever des plans de loin', was published as a supplement to the January issue of Mimoires pour l'histoire des sciences et des beaux arts 2 (Trevoux, 1702), i-xii, plate, and is missing from several copies, including the modem reprint; it is found in the copy at B.N. Imprimes Z 22624. On lost papers and publications of Bonfa see Menard, Histoire civile (note 1), 6: 516-17, and abbe Alexandre-Gui Pingr6, Annales cdlestes du XVIIe siecle, ouvrage publie sous les soins de l'Acadbnie des Sciences, par G. Bigourdan (Paris, Gauthier- Villars, 1901), 375-76, 410, 455, 473. Bonfa's Observations

de la Comete des annees 1680 et 1681 (Marseille, C. Brebion, [1681]) mentions his own Discours physique et mathbnatique touchant la comete (n.p., n.d.), now lost. 9. AdS, Dossier 'Jean Bonfa'; Registre des proces-

verbaux, vol. 7, fos. 227v-33 (10 Dec. 1678), 247v (June 1679); vol. 11, fo. 154r (5 Jan. 1685); vol. 12, fo. 41r (7 June 1687); vol. 13, fo. 127r (4 Feb. 1693); vol. 13, fo. 129v (14 March 1693); vol. 14, fo. 20r (3 July 1694); vol. 14, fo. 218r (3 Dec. 1695); vol. 15, fos. 71r-72r (26 May 1696); vol. 18, fos. 148r-50r, 148v (4 March 1699); vol. 20, fos. 87v-88r (12 March 1701); vol. 20, fo. 218v (25 March 1701); vol. 23, fos. 19r-21r (23 Jan. 1704); vol. 25, fos. 343r-47r (17 Nov. 1706). A.O. MS B, 5, 8, and MS B, 4, 9 (letters of Beauchamps and Gallet). Archives Nationales, Paris, Marine B3 34 and 41, Lettres resues, 1680 (pt. 2) and 1682; Marine B6 12-15, Galeres, Ordres et depeches, 1680-1683; Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Lettres, instructions et memoires, ed. Pierre Clement, 8 vols. (Paris, Imprimerie imperiale, 1861-1882), vol. 3, pt. 2: 44, 58, 140, 381, 722, 724; vol. 3, pt. 1: 101 -2, 117 n. 1, 163, 224- 33, 243-44, 290-97, 325; vol. 3, pt. 1 bis: 192-93, 221-24. L'Histoire et memoires de l'Academie royale des sciences depuis 1666 jusqu 'a 1699 (Paris, Martin, Coignard, Guerin, 1729- 1734), 2: 11, 228 (1686, 1694), and 10: 150-58 (30 Aug. 1692), 240-44 (22 Jan. 1693); L'histoire de l'Acadbnie royale des sciences, avec les Memoires de mathe'matique et de physique. Tire's des registres (Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1700-1707), passim; Jean-Baptiste Duhamel, Regiae scientiarum Acade- miae historia (Paris, 1698, 1701), 335. Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus (see note 1), vol. 1, col. 1712, cites references to Bonfa found in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. 10. See Appendix 2; Archives Departementales de

Vaucluse, Avignon (hereafter A.D. Vaucluse), C 32, Deliberations de l'Assemblee generale des Elus des trois Etats du Comtat Venaissin, passim, with pertinent extracts from fos. 246, 265-66, 365, 479, 553 (1691-1696) printed by Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2), 6-11, albeit with lacunae. 11. For photographic reproductions of Egnatio Danti's

mural map, Avenio urbs antiqua Venaisinus item Comitatus ejusq. caput. Carpentoravi atq. aliae urbes et oppida (c.1580- 1585), see Roberto Almagia, Monumenta Cartographica Vaticana, 3: Le Pitture Murali della Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, 1952), 6-7, 58-59, or B.N. Cartes et Plans (hereafter B.N.C.P.), Ge D 21657. 12. M. le Chevalier de Belleville, 'Avertissement . . . sur

la patrie de M. Flechier, avec une description historique du Comte Venaissin', Memoires pour l'Histoire des Sciences et des Beaux Arts 12 (Trevoux, Sept. 1712): 1526-35, esp. 1526. See also Jean-Joseph d'Expilly, Dictionnaire geographique, historique et politique des Gaules et de la France, 6 vols. (Paris, Desaint et Saillant, Bauche, Durand, 1762-1770), 'Comte Venaissin'. 13. Feuillee (see note 1) called the fontaine de Vaucluse

'une des plus belles curiosites qui soit dans tout ce pays' and planned to take Cassini to see it: A.O. MS B, 4, 10 (21 May 1696). To assess the exhaustiveness of Bonfa's map see Edouard Baratier, Georges Duby, and Ernest Hildes- heimer (eds.), Atlas historique: Provence, Comtat Venaissin, Principaute' d'Orange, Comtei de Nice, Principaute de Monaco (Paris, Armand Colin, 1969), maps 3, 117, 212, 261. 14. Fornery, Histoire du Comtei Venaissin (see note 1), 356-

57; Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2), 10-11. 15. Cerquand, L 'Imagerie et la litte'rature populaires dans le

Comtat Venaissin (see note 5), 2-5. 16. Catherine Delano Smith, 'Cartographic signs on 132



European maps and their explanation before 1700', Imago Mundi 37 (1985): 9-29. For maps of this area that adopt more stylized signs see Louis Cundier, Carte de Provence gravie ... sur les memoires de Iacques Maretz son beau pere de la Ville d'Aix Professeur aux Mathematiques (c. 1640) [B.N.C.P. Ge D 14685 or Ge Af Pf 219 (3991)], published in Honor6 Bouch6, La Chorographie ou description de Provence et l'histoire chronologique du mbme pays [1644], 2 vols. (Paris, Rollin fils, 1736); Jean Le Clerc, Carte du Contat d'Avignon et Venaisain, engraved by Picquet (n.p., n.d.), without latitude or longitude [B.N.C.P., Ge Af Pf 85 (130)]. 17. To date only Bonfa's monumental sundial in the

staircase of the former Jesuit college at Grenoble (now the Lycee Stendhal), has attracted close analysis: J. de Rey Pailhade, A. Rome, and Aug. Favot, 'Le Cadran solaire du Lyc&e de Jeunes Filles de Grenoble', Bulletin de la SocieNte' de Statistique, des sciences naturelles et des arts industriels du dipartement de l'Isre, 4th ser., 15 (Grenoble, 1920): 213- 310. The dial has been restored under the care of Catherine Becquaert; see Catherine Becquaert, Nathalie Jaulin, Christine Schaerer, and Natacha Vallon, L'Horloge solaire du Lycde Stendhal 1673 (Grenoble, Librairie Arthaud; Gieres, l'Imprimerie des Ecureuils, 1984). It is reported in much of the literature on gnomonics; see, for example, Ren6 R. J. Rohr, Les cadrans solaires, traite de gnomonique theiorique et appliqueie, preface by Henri Michel (n.p., Gauthier Villars, 1965), no. 1097; Mrs. Alfred Gatty, The Book of Sun-Dials, ed. H. K. F. Eden and Eleanor Lloyd (London, George Bell and Sons, 1900), 168-69; Ch. Boursier, 800 Devises de Cadrans Solaires (Paris, editions Berger-Levrault, 1936), 16, 113. On the Jesuit college at Grenoble see Delattre, Les 1ftablissements des Jesuites en France (see note 1), vol. 2, cols. 687-719. The sundial can be seen by appointment. 18. For the surveying instrument see Bonfa, 'Binocle

geometrique' (note 8); for other instruments see Som- mervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus (see note 1). 19. Jean Picard, La mesure de la terre (Paris, Imprimerie

Royale, 1670), offered the best seventeenth-century guide to scientific cartography, and the book's importance can be gauged by the correspondence between Francis Vernon and Henry Oldenburg: A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall (eds.), The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, 10 vols. (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1965-1975), vol. 6, no. 1370, vol. 8, no. 1854. We do not know whether Bonfa read Picard's book or whether Mus&e Calvet, Avignon, MS 3486, fo. 293, 'Id&e pour l'6xecution d'une carte du Comt6-Venaissin', reflects Bonfa's views. 20. Mignard was perhaps from the Avignon branch of the

family of painters and architects, at least one of whose members was educated at the Jesuit college at Avignon: Delattre, Les Atablissements des Jesuites en France (see note 1), vol. 1, cols. 468-69. 21. See Charles de Ribbe, La Provence au point de vue des

bois, des torrents et des inondations avant et apres 1789 (Paris, Guillaumin et Cie, 1857), 33-34, 42, 55-65, 78-79, 99-92; Pastoureau et al., Rivages et terres de Provence (note 2); J. de Font-Reaulx, 'La carte du diocese d'Avignon', Provence historique 7 (Marseille, 1957): 351-54; Roland Sicard, 'Vaucluse', in Paroisses et communes de France. Dictionnaire d'histoire administrative et dbnographique, ed. Jean-Pierre Bardet and Claude Motte (Paris, Editions du Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, 1987); Baratier et al., Atlas historique (note 13), maps 3, 109, 111, 117, 125, 212, 223, 237, 261; A. Poirson, 'La Duransole, Abandon de sa prise en Durance aux XVe et XVIe sieles', Memoires de l'Academie de Vaucluse (1924): 109-23; .tienne Garcin,

Dictionnaire historique et topographique de la Provence ancienni et moderne, 2 vols. (Draguignan, Chez l'auteur, 1935); J. -A Barral, Les irrigations dans le departement de Vaucluse (Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1878). 22. Duhamel, L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2), 6-13

The political boundaries marked on seventeenth-century maps were never literal: David Buisseret, 'The cartographic definition of France's eastern boundary in the early seventeenth century', Imago Mundi 36 (1984): 72-80; Paul Solon, 'Frontiers and boundaries: French cartography and the limitation of Bourbon ambition in seventeenth- century France', Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 10 (1984): 94-102. The missing papal territory did not preclude the map's reuse seventy years later. On the dangers of crossing the Durance see Michel Jouve, 'Notes sur la reunion temporaire d'Avignon a la France en 1688 d'apres des lettres et un journal intimes', Revue du Midi. Religion, histoire, litterature 43 (NMmes, 1910): 690-706, esp. 705; Baratier et al., Atlas historique (note 13), 54. 23. Sanson and Sanson, Les Postes qui traversent la France (Paris, Sanson, 1676) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 5483 (43)]; Baratier et al., Atlas historique (see note 13), map 125. On a Jesuit cartographic expedition conducted in harsher conditions see Mary Pedley, "'I Due Valentuomini Indefessi": Christopher Maire and Roger Boscovich and the mapping of the Papal States (1750-1755)', Imago Mundi 45 (1993): 59-76. 24. Thibault, Plan de la Ligne du Contat commandee par

Monsieur de Jossaud Brigadier des Armies du Roy [pendant la peste de 1720] fait par le Sr Thibault Ingenieur (n.p., c. 1720), bracketed words are a handwritten addition [B.N.C.P., Ge D 16836]; H. Jaillot, Le Royaume de France divise' en toutes ses provinces (Paris, N. Sanson, 1680) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 5483 (1-8, esp. 5)]; V. Coronelli, Le Royaume de France (Paris, Nolin, 1694 [1688]) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 6030 (1-18, esp. 1- 2)]. 25. I. and H. Hondius, La Principaute' d'Orange et Comtat de

Venaissin (Amsterdam, Hondius, 1627) [B.N.C.P., Ge Af Pf 85 (84)]. 26. Belleville, 'Avertissement' (see note 12). 27. On the governance of the Comtat Venaissin see R.-L.

Moulierac-Lamoureux, Le Comtat Venaissin pontifical, 1229- 1791 (Vedene, Institut Vauclusien d'ttudes Rhodaniennes, 1977), 274-86; Sicard, 'Vaucluse' (see note 21), 10-11; Sylvain Gagniere, Jacky Granier, Jean-Pierre Poly, et al., Histoire d'Avignon (Aix-en-Provence, tdisud, 1979), 377- 79; Henri Dubled, Histoire du Comtat Venaissin (Carpentras, Chez l'auteur, 1981), 100-2; Expilly, Dictionnaire geiographique, historique et politique des Gaules et de la France (see note 12), 'Avignon', 'Carpentras', 'Comte Venaissin'. 28. For the background see Fornery, Histoire du Comti

Venaissin (see note 1), 2: 319-59; Paul Achard and Leopold Duhamel, Inventaire sommaire des archives communales ante'rieures a 1790 de la ville d'Avignon. Grandes Archives (Avignon, Archives Departementales, 1863-1953), 152-53 (about boftes 74-75), for early modern disputes over the bed of the Durance and maps of the course of the Rhone; Sylvain Gagniere, Notes historiques sur les inondations d'Avignon (Avignon, Imprimerie Rulliere Freres, 1936); on sovereignty over the Rhone see Expilly, Dictionnaire geiographique, historique et politique des Gaules et de la France (see note 12), 'Avignon'.

Archives Communales, Avignon, AA 79, fos. 58, 60, 61 (1, 15 Nov. 1681); AA 80, fos. 80, 113-22 (6 Nov. 1685, 10, 16, 20 Sept., 15 Oct., 15, 24, 26 Nov. 1686); AA 81, fos. 4-8 (31 Mar. 1687, 2, 8, 26 Apr. 1687), AA 143, fo. 97. Archives du Ministere des Affaires ttrangeres (Paris), Memoires et documents, Rome, vol. 26, esp. fo. 227r-v 133



(Oct.-Nov. 1686), and vols. 30-31. Plans to construct or improve canals in the area were not uncommon: Gagniere et al., Histoire d'Avignon (see note 27), 371; C. C. Gillispie (ed.), The Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 16 vols. (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970-1980), vol. 10, cols. 571-72. 29. A.D. Vaucluse, C. 32, passim (1691-1696); Duhamel,

L'Oeuvre de Louis David (see note 2), 6-11; Fornery, Histoire du Comtt Venaissin (see note 1), 2: 354; Barjavel, Dictionnaire historique . . . de Vaucluse (see note 1). Among those entitled (as signatories to minutes of the deliberations of the plus) to receive a copy of the map in 1696 were Laurent Buti (Bishop of Carpentras) and Fransois Ginet (Bishop of Vaison), Vicars-General La Rouyere and Gautier, Procureur-General St Jacques, and plus La Bastie, Rollery, De Venasque, Neuveforet, Pichony, Fayard, Serre, Caumont, and Flechier. 30. B.N. MSS n. a. fr. 7487, 7488, 7489, 7490, 7491,

7492. 31. In addition to local histories cited in note 1 see

Bouch6, La Chorographie ou description de Provence (note 16); Fernand Benoit, 'Les archives du palais des papes d'Avignon du XVe sikle a la fin de la domination pontificale', Meimoires de l'Academie de Vaucluse, 2d ser., 24 (1924): 47-92. Compare the political sensibilities of Bonfa's map with those of his mural sundial at the French city of Grenoble, where he devoted a portion of the wall to a calendar of Louis XIV's military victories. On the political geography of other early modern maps see J. B. Harley, 'Silences and secrecy: the hidden agendas of cartography in early modern Europe', Imago Mundi 40 (1988): 57-76. 32. A.D. Vaucluse, C. 32, as quoted by Duhamel, L'Oeuvre

de Louis David (see note 2), 6-11. 33. AdS, Registre des proses-verbaux, vol. 12, fo. 41r: 'On

a lu une lettre que le pere Bonfa Jesuite a 6crit a Monsieur Borelli, par laquelle il le prit de luy envoyer des verres objectifs, et l'observation qu'il a fait de la derniere eclipse du soleil; il s'offre d'aller de ville en ville pour observer les longitudes, par les immersions des satellites' (quoted with permission of the Archives de l'Academie des Sciences, Paris). Borelly had already sent 24-foot lenses to the Avignonese circle (ibid., vol. 7, fos. 2-6 bis v, January 1675), and he promised two lenses of 18-foot focal length to anyone who would help the Academy ascertain longitudes of sites around the world (Journal des S~avans, Paris or Amsterdam, 11 Sept. 1679). See also Jean-Marie Homet, 'La pratique astronomique en Provence a la fin du XVIIe siele', Annales du Midi 92 (1980): 151-60; Joseph Laissus, 'A propos de Jean-Dominique Cassini', 90e Congres des Societes Savantes (1965), 3: 9-16; and, for the form letter that academicians sent to correspondents, B.N. MS n. a. fr. 5156, fos. 50-51. 34. On the Academy's cartographic projects see Monique

Pelletier, La Carte de Cassini: L'extraordinaire aventure de la carte de France (Paris, Presses de l'cole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, 1990); Lucie Lagarde, 'Historique du probleme du meridien origine en France', Revue d'histoire des sciences et de leurs applications 32 (1979): 289-304; Josef Konvitz, Cartography in France, 1660-1848: Science, Engineer- ing and Statecraft (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1987); Alice Stroup, A Company of Scientists: Botany, Patronage, and Community at the Seventeenth-Century Parisian Royal Academy of Sciences (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford, University of California Press, 1990), 49-50. 35. Cassini's and La Hire's coordinates for Avignon

(based on their own observations and on those of Bonfa and other Provensal astronomers) were published in the Journal des Scavans (1684, 1686) and in the Academy's

map of France: Jean-Dominique Cassini, Charles de Pene, Joseph Sauveur, et al., Neptune Fran~ois (Paris, Imprimerie Royale or Hubert Jaillot, 1693) [B.N.C.P. Ge CC 1114]. The map (drafted in 1682) shows Avignon as 2030' east of Paris, a value that Cassini reconfirmed in 1686, the same year that Bonfa began surveying the Comtat; Pelletier, La Carte de Cassini (see note 34), 56-57. For additional calculations by Cassini and La Hire see L'Histoire et mi'moires de Acadeimie Royale des Sciences depuis 1666 jusqu'a 1699 (note 9), vol. 10: 672, 709-22; Bernard Bovier de Fontenelle, Oeuvres diverses, new ed. (The Hague, Gosse & Neaulme, 1729), vol. 3, 6loge of La Hire. 36. For a typical lament about the uncertainty of

Avignon's coordinates see Bouch6, La Chorographie ou description de Provence (note 16), bk. 1, chaps. 2-3. 37. Among the maps I consulted are the following, listed

according to the value for latitude of Avignon: Sanson, Comtei et gouvernement de Provence (Paris, chez l'auteur, 1652) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 2653 (28) or Ge CC 1274 (64)], 43009' lat., 260 long.; Hondius and Hondius (1627; see note 25), 43012'-15' lat., 25040'-44' long.; Jacques de Chieze, Principautei d'Orange et Comtat de Venaissin (n. p., G. Ianssonius Caesius, 1627) [B.N.C.P., Ge BB 565 XI (149)], 43014' lat., 23035' long. (north is at the bottom of this map); Jaillot (1680; see note 24), 43018' lat., 26001' long.; G. Sanson, Le Royaume de France (Paris, H. Jaillot, 169[-]) [B.N.C.P., Ge C 9964], 43020' lat., 25050' long.; G. Sanson, Comtei et gouvernement de Provence avecq les pays circonvoisins (Paris, Sanson, 1667) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 2624 (57)], 43022' lat., 25050' long.; V. Coronelli, Isolario dell'Atlante Veneto (Venice, author, 1696) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 1678, fo. 307v], 43030' lat., 25031' long.; Coronelli, Le Royaume de France (1694 [1688]; see note 24), 43035' lat., 25030' long.; L. Clauseau, Carte du Comtat Venaissin (Avignon, n.d. [after 1650]) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 2987 B (631) or Ge C. 2354], 43047'-48' lat., 25050'-52' long.; Academie Royale des Sciences, Carte corrigee (1693 [1682]) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 2987 (777)], 43050' lat., 2030' long. (Paris meridian); Bonfa (1696), 43050'-53' lat., 24051'-55' long.; J. B. Nolin fils, Carte du Diocese d'Uz6s, dressee sur les lieux par le Sr Gautier ... soumise aux dernires observations de Mrs de l'Academie Royale des Sciences (n.d.) [B.N.C.P., Ge B 2100 or Ge BB 565 IX (51)], 43057' lat., 22028' long.; G. Delisle, Carte de Provence et des terres adjacentes (Paris, chez l'auteur, c.1715) [B.N.C.P., Ge Af Pf 85 (115)], 43057'3"-59' lat., 22032 '-34' long.; H. Jaillot, La Provence divisie en ses vigueries in Atlas Franfois (Paris, Hubert Jaillot, 1695) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 1280 (36)], 43059' lat., 26031' long.; Hubert Jaillot, La Provence divisie en ses vigueries et terres adjacentes (Paris, chez l'auteur, 168[-]) [B.N.C.P., Ge AF Pf 28 (58)], 43059' lat., 26035' long.; P. J. Bompario, Provence (Amsterdam, G. Janson and J. Blaeu, n.d.) [B.N.C.P., Ge BB 565 XI, fo. 133v], 440 lat., 22019' long.; Louis Cundier, Carte de Provence (c.1640) [B.N.C.P., Ge D 14685; Ge Af Pf 219 (3991)], 440 lat., 25031' long. Compare Anon., Comti de Venaissin et Principauti' d'Orange (1 7th century), without latitude or longitude [B.N.C.P., Ge Af Pf 204 (62)]; P. Du Val, La Carte Generale de France (Paris, H. Jaillot, 1685) [B.N.C.P., Ge D 15308], 4302/10' lat., 2508/10' long. (using a base of 10). An essential guide is Mireille Pastoureau's Les Atlas Franfais XVIe-XVIIIe sikcles. Repertoire bibliographique et etude (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, 1984). 38. L'Histoire et mimoires de 1'Acadbmie Royale des Sciences,

vol. 1: 354 (1692), vol. 2: 265 (1695); Neptune Franfois (see note 35). 39. When the French occupied Avignon in 1688, the

Jesuit college briefly became the refuge of papal vice- 134



legate Balthazar Censi: Dubled, Histoire du Comtat Venaissin (see note 27), 120. Inquiries addressed to the Vatican Library and the Jesuit Archives have turned up no information pertinent to Bonfa or his map; nor do seventeenth-century maps of Italy or the papal states yield any obvious model for Bonfa's coordinates of Avignon: see Jan Jansson, Patrimonio di S. Pietro (n.d.), Gio. Giacomo Rossi, Descripttione dello Stato della Chiesa (1669), and Domenico de Rossi, Parte Occidentale della Linguadoca col tratto del Nuovo Canale (1693) and Patrimonio de S. Pietro (1696) [B.N.C.P., Ge AF Pf 105 (73), Ge AF Pf 186 (4467), GE CC 1271 (21), Ge DD 2987 (5462), respectively]; Roberto Almagia, L 'Italia di Giovanni Antonio Magini e la Cartographia dell'Italia nei secoli XVI e XVII (Naples, Citta del Castello; Florence, Francesco Perrela,

1922); Almagia, Documenti Cartografici dello Stato Pontificio (Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, 1960); Almagia, Monumenta Cartographica Vaticana, 4 vols. (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944- 1955); Almagia, Monumenta Italiae Cartographica: Reprodu- zioni di carte e regionali d'Italia dal Secolo XIV al XVII (Florence, Istituto Geografico Militare, 1929); Ermanno Armao, Vincenzo Coronelli: Cenni sull'uomo e la sua vita (Florence, Bibliopolis, 1944). Likewise, contemporaneous maps of the continent or the world do not solve the puzzle: Nicolas De Fer, L'Europe (1695) [B.N.C.P., Ge DD 2987 B (166)]; Rodney W. Shirley, The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700 (London, Holland Press, 1983).

APPENDIX 1: Technical Details concerning Le Comte Venaissin (1696)

In the assembled map, the upper right sheet contains the title cartouche, a motto, and David's claim to have drawn and engraved the map. The title (Fig. 2) reads: 'LE / COMTE / VENAISSIN / Par le R. P. BONFA / de la Compe. de IESUS / professeur des / Mathematiques / a [sic] AVIGNON.' Beneath the title cartouche are the words: 'QUID NOS SEPARABIT'. On the pedestal beneath the allegorical figure of secular power, in italics: 'Ludovicus David delfineafv[it] / et Sculpsit'. David's rendering of 'delineavit' is inexact, as confirmed by Mme Almeras who kindly examined this inscription with a magnifying glass at the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine.

In the lower left sheet of the assembled map, on the left bank of the Rhone River, appears a banner bearing the dedication and a motto; this banner surrounds the arms of Pope Clement XIII (Fig. 3): 'A. N. S. P. LE P. CLEMEN / XIII / Ses tres / humbles. tres / obeissants: / et tres fideles Suiets. et ser / IN OMNEM TERRAM'. No accents mark the vowels.

In the same lower left sheet of the assembled map, on the right bank of the Rhone, appear two banners with mottoes, as well as information about the map's scale. The mottoes read 'ERIT SOLUTUM ET IN COELIS' and 'DABIT HIS QUOQUE FINES'. The scale reads 'LIEUE DE 2282.T.2.P.4.P.10.L. ET DE 25 AV DEGRE' and (in italics) 'Lieue Moienne du Pais'.

The central sheets at the top and bottom of the assembled map bear the orientation 'NORD' and 'SUD' (Fig. 5), respectively. Above 'SUD' appears a banner with David's claim to have drawn and engraved the map, this time in French and with the date: 'DEsSIGNt.ET.GRAVA.PAR.LouIs.DAVID a [backwards and without an accent] Avignon / 1696'.

The central sheets at the sides of the assembled map bear the orientation 'OUEST' and 'EST' (Fig. 4), at left and right, respectively.

With a few exceptions, David has engraved place names and other words in Roman. Arrows mark the direction of flow of the Rhone River.

The border of leaves and berries is engraved on the same plates as the map itself. Inside that border are latitude and longitude scales: the map purports to represent a region extending from 43042' to 44020' north of the equator and from 24?40' to 25028' east of the Canary Islands. On the eastern latitude scale, the number 2 appears as a mirror image at 4402'. Upper-case letters (A to T) run from north to south inside the latitude scale, lower-case letters (a to &) from west to east inside the longitude scale (j, v, and w are not used, necessitating & after the alphabet is exhausted).

At present, no seventeenth-century printing of Bonfa's map is known. The five known copies, from the altered and reprinted 1762 edition, are all mounted. Of the two copies at the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, one is exhibited under glass in a nineteenth-century wooden frame; it is in good condition but proved impossible to measure or to examine in detail. The second copy of the map at the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine is mounted on canvas and needs restoration. The mounting probably dates from the eighteenth century; the canvas is 152 by 138.5 cm; at the top and bottom of the mounting are two wooden bars (with bevelled ends) to facilitate hanging; a decorative black border, measuring 2.5 cm, has been painted on to the canvas around the map to complement the bars. The ensemble of the engraved map measures 146.5 by 133.6 cm. The nine individual sheets vary in size: two of the central sheets measure 44.8 by 44.5 cm, and 44.9 by 44.5 cm, respectively; the widths of two side sheets are 45 cm and 44.8 cm. The copper plates are also of different sizes: the plate with the title cartouche measures 51.5 by 46.7 cm; the plate marked 'NORD' just below the border measures 52 by 48 cm. The provenance of these maps is unknown, although one probably was part of the collection of Monseigneur Inguimbert. I am grateful to Mme Isabelle Battez, Conservateur-General of the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine, for her generosity in supplying these details and inferences.

The Bibliotheque Ceccano copies, transferred in 1983 from the Bibliotheque Municipale de la Ville d'Avignon, continue to be catalogued as Estampes Atlas 93 and 93 bis; Estampe Atlas 93 is in good condition, having been restored in 1984; Estampe Atlas 93 bis has not been restored. These maps measure in their entirety about 150 by 138 cm, with each of the nine sheets measuring about 50 by 46 cm. The provenance of these maps is unknown. Mme Francoise de Forbin, Conservateur of the Bibliotheque Ceccano, kindly supplied this information. When I examined these maps at the Bibliotheque Municipale, one or both of the canvas backings was fitted with black wooden bars for mounting, like the unframed map at the Bibliotheque Inguimbertine.

The map at the Musee du Vieil Avignon (inventory number 399) is framed under glass, although it is not exhibited. The frame measures 170 by 150 cm. The map in its entirety measures 150 by 142 cm; the individual sheets measure about 53 by 48 cm. Its provenance is unknown. Mme Dominique Vingtain, Conservateur of the Mus&e du Vieil Avignon, kindly supplied this information. 135



The dimensions of the entire map and of its nine sheets vary, depending on how the sheets were cut after printing and how they were glued onto their backing when mounted. Although the engraver facilitated mounting by making adjacent margins overlap, the fit is not perfect, partly because of carelessness in the mounting but also because of the difficulty of matching the details in different plates.

APPENDIX 2: Bonfa's Letters about His Survey of the Comtat Venaissin

Letter I Letter of 6 Nov. 1686 from Bonfa to Thomas Gouye, S.J., mathematician at the College Royal in Paris (Bibliotheque

Nationale [Paris], MS fr. 24427, fos. 41-42). This and Letter 3, below, are two of four letters from Bonfa to Gouye and to Francois d'Aix de La Chaize that survive at the Bibliotheque Nationale. In all four, Bonfa sends reports of his astronomical observations, articles about instruments of his design, and accounts of his scientific activities, in the hopes that these powerful Jesuits will forward his work to the Journal des Spavans and to the astronomers of the Academie Royale des Sciences. In this letter Bonfa establishes his credentials by reporting his accomplishments and research plans; he also offers his services for other tasks, especially a Jesuit-run global cartographic project.

41r: d'Avignon le 6 nov. 1686.

Mon R Pere J'ay envoye au R P de la Chaize la supputation de l'Eclypse qui doit arriver ce mois. I'espere qu'il aura la bonte de la

Communiquer a VR. Ie l'ay faite selon le Systheme des tables Rudolphines, que i'ay tirees en partie de Kepler, et en partie de Morin. Ie l'ay encore faite par les tables de Riccioli. Ces deux supputations sont fort differentes pour le commencement, la fin, la grandeur, et la duree de l'Eclypse. L'Observation desidera tout. Je vis deux taches considerables dans le Soleil deux ou trois iours devant la St Matthieu, ie doutay mesme s'il ny en avoit pas une troisieme, mais comme ie me preparois a un voyage ie n'eus pas le tems de les observer. Mgneur nostre Vicelegat et Mrs Nos Consuls m'ont prie d'entreprendre un Canal, qui coure tout le Comtat pour le transport mutuel des denrees de ce pais. La digue que l'on fait du coste de la France pour nous fermer le Rosne les y a obligez. J'ay desia commende un grand niveau de fer qui portera une lunete, et quelques autres instrumens qui seront necessaires pour niveler tout ce pais et en faire une carte exacte. Je souhaiterois fort a la gloire de la France pour le bien des Mathematiques et pour la Satisfaction des Scavans sans parler de plusieurs autres avantages, que l'on prit le dessein de determiner exactement les Longitudes et les Latitudes de l'Europe aussy bien que des costes et des isles de nos mers. II me semble que personne ne le peut faire plus commodement, et a moins / 41v de fraix que des Jesuites, nous avons des maisons dans toutes les principales villes, et dans celles ou nous ne sommes pas nous aurions facilement le moyen de trouver des maisons commodes pour observer les Eclypses et les emersions des Satellites de Jupiter &c. On en envoye au bout du monde pour faire des observations, on pourroit bien encore faire cette petite despence. Si on me iugeoit capable de cela ie le fairois bien volontiers. VR aura la bonte d'offrir mes respects a Mrs de l'observatoire, et de leur communiquer mes Supputations. Je suis dans le dessein de prendre cette annee les Ascensions droites des estoiles fixes, leur longitudes, latitude, et declinaison, si on ne me determine pas a quelqu'autre sorte d'observation. Je fais pour ce suiet une horloge de leton a pendule, qui sera bien tost achevee. Je suis de tout mon coeur

MRP V T H et T O S

Bonfa

42v A Mon R Pere le R P Gouye de

la Compagnie de JESUS A Paris au college de

Louis le grand

Seal Letter 2 Letter from Bonfa and Mignard to the Consuls of Avignon from L'Isle on 26 April 1687 (Archives Communales [Avignon], AA 81, Correspondance des consuls, 1687-1689, fos. 8r-v).

Mrs Si la multitude des operations, qu'il nous a fallu faire sans discontinuation sur des terrains, des rochers, et des montagnes

fort incommodes pour ne pas perdre temps, et le defaut de commoditez pour Avignon ne nous eussent empeschez, nous nous fussions plus tost donnez l'honneur de vous escrire, pour vous rendre conte de nostre travail. Nous avons este contraints de mesurer de loin, et dans la plaine la distance des hauteurs, qui nous devoient servir de stations, et desquelles on pouvoit descouvrir une plus grande estendue du pais. Nous avons tire des rayons, pour pouvoir placer dans la carte, qui doit servir a tracer le dessein du canal, non seulement les lieux les plus considerables, que nous avons pu decouvrir depuis ces eminences, mais encore les moindres villages, et les plus petites granges, dont on nous a pui assigner les noms. Nous avons parcouru une partie de la Sorgue a pied la Boussole, et le crayon en main, pour les orienter, et les marquer sur le papier. La pluye nous a retenus deux iours dans / L'Isle, et l'epaisseur extraordinaire des broufillards ne nous permettant pas de rien descouvrir ce matin dans la campagne, nous avons este obligez de renvoyer a l'apresdisner une de nos operations la plus importante, qui nous doit donner au iuste la distance du Chasteau de Velleron, de Tozon, et du Tor, apres quoy nous

136 nous transporterons dans les deux derniers de ces lieux pour achever les deux operations, que nous avons faites a Velleron



respectivement a ces deux lieux: mais avant que de quitter l'Isle, nous parcourrons la boussole, et le crayon en main, le reste des rameaux de la Sorgue, qui aboutissent a l'Isle. Tous les lieux que nous avons visitez, nous ont tesmoigne qu'on ne pouvoit pas entreprendre un dessein plus utile pour tous les lieux du Contat, que celluy cy, et un desir extraordinaire de voir qu'on y met bien tost la main. Is nous asseurent tous qu'ils ne sqavent que faire de leurs danrees, qu'ils ont du bled, du vin, du bois, de l'huile & beaucoup plus qu'il n'en faut pour toute la province, et qu'ils esperent d'establir quantite de differens commerces, qui n'attirerent pas peu d'argent dans le pais. Nous esperons d'avoir l'honneur de vous rendre conte un peu plus en particulier de toutes choses, et de vous tesmoigner avec combien de respect nous sommes

Messieurs Vos tres humbles, et tres

de L'Isle le 26 Avril obeissans serviteurs 1687 Bonfa

Mignard Letter 3 Bonfa writes from Avignon on 16 May 1687 to an unknown person, probably pere La Chaize, who was in charge of the Jesuit missions abroad (Bibliotheque Nationale [Paris], MS fr. 24427, fos. 39-40).

39r d'Avignon le 16 May 1687

Mon R Pere Je prens la liberte d'envoyer a Vostre Reverence l'observation de la derniere Eclypse du Soleil, qui est arriv&e. I'aurois

observe plus de phases, si le lieu dans lequel ie fis mon observation, l'eut permis. I'avois roule environ un mois une grande partie du contat, pour prendre le plan de tout ce pais, et en faire une Carte par l'ordre de Mgneur. le Vicelegat. I'y dois retourner au premier iour pour continuer cet ouvrage, apres lequel nous fairons un dessein du Canal, que lYon a resolu de faire, pour communiquer les danrees du pais a Avignon, et aux principaux lieux de ce pais parceque on nous ferme le RhOne. J'iray ensuitte niveller tous les endroits par lesquels on peut esperer de faire passer ce canal. Ce travail et ce voyage m'avoit oste le moyen de preparer / 39v un lieu plus commode, cepandant iVay observe avec toute l'exactitude possible les phases que ie luy envoye. Le Systheme de Riccioli donnoit cette Eclypse beaucoup plus tost qu'elle nWest arriv&e et plus petite d'un doit. Je prie V R d'avoir la bonte de se souvenir de ce que i'avois pris la liberte de luy proposer touchant les Longitudes et les latitudes des principaux lieux de l'Europe pendant que le Roy envoye au bout du monde avec tant de generosite des Jesuites pour observer celles des pais les plus reculez le dessein nWen seroit pas moins glorieux a Sa Majeste, et a la Compagnie, et il ne faudroit pas de fort grande despanse pour l'exequuter. [No conclusion or signature, although the letter ends about one-third from the top of the page.] 40r Bonfa's eclipse observations. 41v No address.

RtSUMP: La carte de Jean Bonfa, 1696, offre la representation la plus exacte a l'epoque du Comtat Venaissin

et des voies d'eau qui le relient a Avignon. Commande'e au moment oui la France menacait la region, cette

carte depeint avec ses themes allegoriques et topographiques une geographie politique favorisant les interets

du Pape. II est pourtant surprenant de constater que les coordonnees geographiques d'Avignon ne

correspondent pas aux dernieres trouvailles du pere Bonfa, un astronome habile, ou de ses amis a

l'Observatoire de Paris. Du fait que les autorites locales surveillaient la repartition de la carte, les autres

cartographes ne purent l'obtenir.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Jean Bonfa's Karte von 1696 gibt das genaueste zeitgenbssische Portrat der

Bevolkerung des Comtat Venaissin und der Schiffahrtswege die es mit Avignon verbinden. Im Auftrag

gegeben als Frankreich die wirtschaftliche und politische Unabhangigkeit bedrohte, widerspiegeln die

topographischen Details und allegorischen Themen der Karte eine politische Geographie zugunsten der

papstlichen Interessen. Uberraschend jedoch sind die Koordinaten fur Avignon auffallend ungenau trotz

Bonfa's Fachkenntnis als Position-Astronom und seiner Zusammenarbeit mit dem Pariser Observatorium. Da ortliche Autoritaten die Verbreitung der Karte kontrollierten, war sie nicht fur andere Kartographen

verfugbar.

A New Research Fellowship

The National Maritime Museum has an important collection of charts dating from the 15th century and is hoping to establish a fellowship to enable a young scholar to work on some aspect of this collection, leading to publication. Preliminary enquiries should be addressed to Dr Margarette Lincoln, Head of Research, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF. 137



Le Comté Venaissin (1696) of Jean Bonfa, S.J.: A paradoxical map by an accidental cartographer

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