FERRARIS, JOSEPH JEAN, VERY LARGE WALL MAP 'CARTE CHOROGRAPHIQUE DES PAYS-BAS AUTRICHIENS...'

Jean Joseph Count de Ferraris (1726-1814), born in France became a General and Field-Marshall in the Austrian Army and also worked as a cartographer. Between 1771 and 1778, Ferraris was commissioned by Empress Maria Theresia of Austria and Emperor Joseph II to create a detailed Carte-de-Cabinet of the Austrian Netherlands. The maps formed a collection of 275 hand-coloured maps accompanied by twelve volumes of handwritten commentaries.
In 1777 and 1778, Ferraris issued a reduced version of the Cabinet maps for commercial sale, the so-called carte marchande of which this lot is an example.

The Ferraris maps were used to great extent during the military operations of the French Revolutionary Wars and during the Napoleonic Wars.