Nicolas de Fer (1646-1720).
Map of The Sevenes and Lower Languedoc
Nicolas de Fer was the youngest son of Antoine de Fer, a reasonably successful Parisian print and mapseller of the mid-XVII century who died in 1673.
Nicolas became an apprentice to Parisian engraver, Louis Spirinx at the age of 12, and authored his first map, of the Canal du Midi. in 1669 at the age of 23, making him a direct contemporary of Louis de Froidour, although it is uncertain as to exactly when the map entitled ‘Gouvernement général de Languedoc’ was drawn.
He took over his father’s business in 1687 and became official geographer to the French Dauphin in 1690 and, after the death of Louis XIV in 1711, official geographer to both French and Spanish courts, producing several hundreds maps.
View the western part of the above map here, featuring The Sevenes and Lower Languedoc. It makes for fascinating reading, but Marcel Girault assures me that the dotted lines should not be confused with the course taken by The Regordane, but instead delineate the limits of church dioces.
More information on his life and works is available at the Website of Roderick M Barron, one of the UK's leading private antiquarian map dealers.
We would like to thank Dominique BÉGUIN for bringing this map to our attention as well as two others:
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