Cartes typo-géographiques, inventées et imprimées par Firmin Didot. France.

Colour letterpress, 35,5 x 39 cm (some foxing, small defects incl. a few nailholes).

Very rare map of France with an inset map of Corsica, based upon Firmin Didot's map for the Ponts-et-Chaussées (French civil engineering corps), drawn by J. Langlois and published under Barbié du Bocage. Didot, famous for elegant typography and new design of letters, invented the word "stereotype", which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages, as opposed to printing pages directly with movable type, making the printing much cheaper. Our map, however, is the only one printed in colour and movable type, made as an experiment by Firmin Didot. The legend in the lower margin explains the different colours as indicators of geographical features of the landscape.