"Plan de la Bataille de Cassano donnée le 16 aoust 1705".

Manuscript on laid paper, watermark (Heawood 3252: Paris): 26,5 x 37 cm, hand-coloured (sm. holes, repairs).

Interesting battle plan, presumably by a French cartographer. The Battle of Cassano at the Lombardy town of Cassano d'Adda near Milan took place on 16 August 1705 during the War of the Spanish Succession between a French-led force commanded by the Duc de Vendôme and the Imperial forces under Prince Eugene of Savoy. The town of Cassano on the right bank was protected by a small fortification or redoubt and the French prevented the Imperial army from crossing the River Adda. The French were in an extremely dangerous position, their baggage blocking the main bridge and the Adda behind them. Vendôme formed a line along the canal and manned the bridge redoubts with his best troops. The battle was later engraved by i.a. Jan van Huchtenburgh (1647-1733); printed siege plans are present in the "Histoire du prince Eugene de Savoye, Généralissime Des Armées de l'Empereur et de l'Empire. Enrichie de Figures en Taille-Douce" (3rd vol., Vienna, Briffaut, 1777, p. 191). The emphasis, in this manuscript map, on the eight companies of grenadiers behind the Pendine Canal and the 21 companies on the redoubts at the Bridge of the Petit Retorto (an irrigation canal running parallel to the Adda), make it plausible that the cartographer was an eye-witness who belonged to the French troops.