The “Topographic Map of 1857”: Uses of an Image and the Construction of Cartographic Sources

Abstract

This article reviews the process of creating the cartographic document commonly called the “Topographic Map of 1857.” After various copies were discovered to have been regarded as the same map, the contexts of the way the various cartographic objects were produced were described. During this stage, the hydrographic goals of the project, as a result of which the map was conceived, were recovered and the interpretations of its publication described.