BRETEZ, Louis / TURGOT. - Plan de Paris commencé l'année 1734, Dessiné et gravé sous les ordres de Messire Michel Etienne Turgot, prévost des marchands.

FIRST EDITION of Turgot's Monumental Joined View of Paris, covering the first eleven arrondissements of modern Paris. With a combined width of over ten feet (2505 x 32250mm), this archivally joined plan makes for an arresting centerpiece. Turgot's is perhaps the best record of Paris in the 18th century, before its transformation by Georges-Eugène Haussmann and Emperor Napoleon III. It is widely regarded as one of the most important city views of all time.

Folding key sheet, 20 double-page engraved maps (plates 18 and 19 joined and folded), contemporary mottled calf gilt, with gilt panelled decorative borders and large gilt arms of Paris to the center of each board.

Louis Bretez and Michel-Etienne Turgot's monumental 1739 map of Paris during the reign of Louis XV. Michel-Etienne Turgot, Louis XV's Prévot des Marchands, commissioned this plan in 1734 from Loius Bretez, a sculptor, painter and perspective specialist, who used the conventional bird's-eye representation. This was the last major example of this type of plan and is an important record of the architecture and gardens of Paris at that time.
Turgot's plan of Paris is possibly the most ambitious urban mapping ever undertaken. Shows the whole of 18th century Paris and offers a wonderful perspective on the city prior to Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann’s 19th-century redesign.
Turgot, who held the mayor-like office of Prévôt des Marchands de Paris, commissioned Louis Bretez and Claude Lucas to produce this map in 1734. Oriented to the east on an axonometrical projection, this map is best understood as an aerial view where in every building, window, tree, shadow and park is shown. It took the team nearly five years of exhaustive sketching and surveying to assemble this masterpiece. In order to produce the thousands of sketches and surveys required to complete this map, Bretez was issued a permit to enter every building in Paris. The completed plan which consists of twenty individual sheets, can be assembled into a massive and striking display roughly 8 feet by 10 feet.

Michel-Étienne Turgot (1690-1751)
Was a French businessman and civil administrator in the first half of the 18th century. From 1729 to 1740 he held the mayor-like office of Prévôt des Marchands de Paris ("Master of the merchants of Paris") under King Louis XV. Turgot's greatest claim to fame is his commissioning of Louis Bretez to assemble the spectacular Turgot Plan of Paris, one of the greatest feats of urban cartography ever undertaken. Turgot's more famous son, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, attained prominence as a statesman and economist under Louis the XVI.
Louis Bretez (fl. 1700 - 1740) was French born sculptor and painter active in the early 18th century. Bretez was a member of the Academie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in Paris where he specialized in perspective with regard to architecture. Bretez's greatest achievement was his production, with Claude Lucas, of the monumental Turgot Plan of Paris. This spectacular map, one of history's greatest achievements of urban cartography, occupied Bretez from 1734 to 1739. It depicts Paris from a bird's eye perspective with extraordinary detail to the level of individual buildings and trees.

Alphonse Taride (fl. 1850 - 1930)
was a prolific Paris based publisher active in the late 19th and early 20th century. Publishing as" A. Taride", the firm produced a large corpus of work including numerous maps, tourist guides, and pocket plans of different parts of France. With the advent of the automobile and improved roadways in the early 20th century, the name "Taride" became synonymous with high quality road maps. Taride has his offices at 18 - 20 Boulevard St. Denis, Paris.