Featured Unknown 1672 fortification maps engraved by François Collignon (Rome)

I recently acquired a set of nine fortification plans engraved in 1672 and signed by Fr. Collignon (François Collignon), a French engraver active in Rome.


The cities depicted are all located in the Dutch Republic (e.g., Utrecht, Coevorden, Breda, Zutphen, ’s-Hertogenbosch, etc.), and the plates are executed in a precise, military style typical of the Dutch tradition.



Surprisingly, the maps are annotated in Dutch and Latin — using terms like Roeden, Virgae, Moeras, and the Dutch/Latin names of rivers (Rhenus Fl., De Yssel Fl., etc.). Collignon most likely did not speak Dutch, so I suspect these engravings were copied from existing Dutch cartographic sources — perhaps city plans by Blaeu, Van Deventer, or De Wit?


I recently found a title page that likely belongs to the volume from which these maps came:

“Piante delle piazze principali delle Provincie unite de’ Paesi Bassi… dedicate a Luigi XIV”, printed in Rome by Francesco Tizzoni in 1672 and engraved by Collignon. It seems to be a propaganda piece from the Franco-Dutch War (1672), celebrating Louis XIV’s supposed conquests in the Low Countries.


The engravings are in fragile condition and were previously mounted with tape. Thankfully, I was able to remove the tape safely.

This was how the maps were framed.


Here’s what I’d love help with:

1.Identifying possible Dutch sources for these engravings.

2.Confirming whether this atlas is known in any institutional collections (WorldCat and Google Books shows no matches).

3.Understanding the military or political context of these plates in more detail.

4.Suggestions on how to preserve and/or digitize these items responsibly.

5.Any secondary literature on Collignon’s cartographic output.


I’d be very grateful for any pointers, resources, or insights you might have. I’m not a map specialist myself — I work primarily with early printed books from the Low Countries — so any help navigating this area is most welcome!


Thank you in advance!

 

Very nice find, EL, I love fortifications.
And wasn't Coevorden beautiful. Most of the moat is still there, so part of the star outline is still visible. I believe the Coevorden fortifications were built by Menno van Coehoorn.

@2manybooks .

 

I believed wrong, they were older, already there during the 80-years war:

https://www.geschiedeniscoevorden.nl/geschiedenispagina/militaire-geschiedenis-coevorden/

 

It looks like there may be a copy held in the Museum Kurhaus Kleve. They are the source for the digital image of the title page. It is unclear if they have the entire book, or just the title page in binding -

https://sammlung.mkk.art/werke/7236

There also may be one in the French Bibliothèque de l'École Militaire, but I cannot get their search engine to load properly -

https://www.defense.gouv.fr/academ/...taire/catalogue-bibliotheque-lecole-militaire



As for conservation, you might want to look for paper conservators in your region. A good first step for storage purposes would be to put each plate between two sheets of acid free mat board. The boards could be hinged together with conservation grade linen tape, if you want to get fancy.

As I am in the U.S., I am not familiar with conservation suppliers in Europe.

 

Thank you! I haven’t had the chance to contact the museum yet. Yesterday I picked up the maps after buying them with these kind of photo’s.




I also found these maps in an atlas in Malta but only a description of the engravings.

https://www.geocities.ws/thierenswilliam/proceedingsofhistoryweek1992/descriptionofasplendidcollection.pdf

 

They are very nice, wonderful to view.