Map of the Roman Empire, 1709

The story of this map

Guillaume de L’Isle was the first cartographer to hold the title of Premier Géographe du Roi, and his maps of the ancient world were the standard reference of the early eighteenth century. This English edition of his historical map of the Roman Empire was printed in London for Herman Moll, the Dutch-born engraver whose shop supplied the maps in the first editions of Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels.

The map shows the empire as it stood around the year 400, when its provinces still reached from Britannia to Mesopotamia, and it names the peoples along the frontiers whose names would soon be attached to its fall. Latin place-names sit beside the eighteenth-century spellings, so a reader can find Lutetia and Paris, Londinium and London, on the same sheet.

It is a wide, handsome engraving — more than twice as broad as it is tall — with the provinces outlined in colour and a decorative title cartouche at the left. We print it in a 12×24 in panoramic format so nothing is cropped, on archival matte paper, framed to order.

For anyone who reads Roman history, teaches it, or simply likes the idea of the whole Mediterranean world on one sheet, this is the map. It belongs in our historic charts and ancient-world collection alongside Ortelius’ Italy and the Hondius map of Europe.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration plan: crop scan margins, balance colour cast and levels while keeping the paper tone, remove library stamps and scanner artefacts if present, gentle sharpening. Wide two-sheet format: even out the centre join. No repainting of original content.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.