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ANVILLE, JEAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 158 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANVILLE, See also:JEAN . See also:BAPTISTE BOURGUIGNON D' (1697-1782), perhaps the greatest See also:geographical author of the 18th See also:century, was See also:born at See also:Paris on the r Ith of See also:July 1697. His See also:passion for geographical See also:research displayed itself from See also:early years: at the See also:age of twelve he was already amusing himself by See also:drawing maps for Latin authors. Later, his friendship with the antiquarian, See also:Abbe Longuerue, greatly aided his studies. His first serious See also:map, that of See also:Ancient See also:Greece, was published when he was fifteen, and at the age of twenty-two he was appointed one of the See also:king's geographers, and began to attract the See also:attention of the first authorities. D'Anville's studies embraced everything of geographical nature in the See also:world's literature, as far as he could See also:master it: for this purpose he not only searched ancient and See also:modern historians, travellers and narrators of every description, but also poets, orators and philosophers. One of his 'cherished See also:objects was to reform See also:geography by putting an end to the See also:blind copying of older maps, by testing the commonly accepted positions of places through a rigorous examination of all the descriptive authority, and by excluding from cartography every name inadequately supported. Vast spaces, which had before been covered with countries and cities, were thus soddenly reduced almost to a See also:blank. D'Anville was at first employed in the humbler task of illustrating by maps the See also:works of different travellers, such as Marchais, See also:Charlevoix, Labat and Duhalde. For the See also:history of See also:China by the last-named writer he was employed to make an See also:atlas, which was published separately at the See also:Hague in 1737. In 1735 and 1736 he brought out two See also:treatises on the figure of the See also:earth; but these attempts to solve geometrical problems by See also:literary material were, to a See also:great extent, refuted by See also:Maupertuis' measurements of a degree within the polar circle. D'Anville's See also:historical method was more successful in his 1743 map of See also:Italy, which first indicated numerous errors in the mapping of that See also:country, and was'accompanied by a valuable memoir (a novelty in such See also:work), showing in full the See also:sources of the See also:design.

A trigonometrical survey which See also:

Benedict XIV. soon after had made in the papal states strikingly confirmed the See also:French geographer's results. In his later years d'Anville did See also:yeoman service for ancient and See also:medieval geography, accomplishing something like a revolution in the former; mapping afresh all the See also:chief countries of the pre-See also:Christian civilizations (especially See also:Egypt), and by his Memoire et abrege de geographic ancienne et generale and his bats formes en See also:Europe apres la chute de l' See also:empire romain en occident (1771) rendering his labours still more generally useful. In 1754, at the age of fifty-seven, he became a member of the See also:Academic See also:des See also:Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, whose transactions he enriched with many papers. In 1775 he received the only See also:place in the Academie des Sciences which is allotted to geography; and in the same See also:year he was appointed, without solicitation, first geographer to the king. His last employment consisted in arranging his collection of maps, plans and geographical materials. It was the most extensive in Europe, and had been See also:purchased by the king, who, however, See also:left him the use of it during his See also:life. This task per-formed, he sank into a See also:total imbecility both of mind and See also:body, which continued for two years, till his See also:death in See also:January 1782. D'Anville's published See also:memoirs and See also:dissertations amounted to 78, and his maps to 211. A See also:complete edition of his works was announced in 18o6 by de Manne in 6 vols. See also:quarto, only two of which had appeared when the editor died in 1832. See See also:Dacier's Eloge de d'Anville (Paris, 1802). Besides the See also:separate works noticed above, See also:dAnville's maps executed for See also:Rollin's Histoire ancienne and Histoire romaine, and his Traite des mesures anciennes et modernes (1769), deserve See also:special See also:notice.

End of Article: ANVILLE, JEAN

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