Les tablettes guerrieres Ou cartes choisies Pour la Commondité des officiers et des voyageurs De la Feuille, Daniel Maps & Atlases

De la Feuille, Daniel. Les tablettes guerrieres Ou cartes choisies Pour la Commondité des officiers et des voyageurs. Amsterdam: by the engraver, [1711?]. Small folio (7 3/4" x 5 7/8", 196mm x 144mm): 70 leaves. With 35 hand-colored double-page engraved plates, 34 of which are maps. Bound in modern half white sheepskin over marbled boards. Lacking the title-leaf. Leaves bisected with tape repairs throughout. Some color likely done by a later hand. Evenly tanned with occasional spotting. Daniel de la Feuille (1640-1709) fled from France following the renewed persecution of Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Like many Protestant artisans of the period, he sought refuge in the more tolerant Dutch Republic, where he found success as an engraver, draftsman, and publisher. In Amsterdam, he was admitted to the prestigious Booksellers' Guild and gained early recognition for his Devises et emblèmes, a widely disseminated collection of ornamental motifs intended for use by silversmiths and engravers. De la Feuille turned his attention to cartography late in life, publishing small-format atlases and maps that reflected both contemporary geopolitical concerns and the practical needs of a mobile, militarized elite. Les Tablettes Guerrières first appeared in 1706 at the height of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). The conflict involved a territorial scramble between major European powers of de la Feuille's day, and created strong demand for maps that could clarify the shifting political and military landscapes of the continent and its colonies. De la Feuille's atlas responded to this moment by offering a compact, practical reference for officers, travelers, and politically informed readers. It focused on strategic regions and contemporary battle zones, providing accessible geographical knowledge in a highly portable format. Warfare in the early XVIIIc was being radically transformed by new tactics and technologies -- more powerful artillery, standardized infantry formations, and a move away from the classical strategies inherited from the Romans. The importance of this development in the cultural conscious is evidenced by the unique second engraving, "L'Architecture militaire ou l'École de Mars et de Neptune." The plate illustrates over 100 principles and tools of fortification and was additionally published in the second French edition of Menno van Coehoorn's Nouvelle fortification (1706), a foundational treatise on military engineering. Tablettes guerrières was conceived with the raison d'être of aiding those engaged in, or closely following, the progress of modern warfare. However, as the atlas gained popularity, its connection to the conflict that inspired it began to wane. After Daniel's death in 1709, his son, Paul de la Feuille, continued to reissue and expand the work into the 1720s. By this time, the War of the Spanish Succession had concluded but the maps were no longer diligently updated to reflect new borders dictated by resolution treaties. As a result, the atlas came to be valued more for its decorative charm than for its utility. The present example is likely one such later issue, as Paul's editions expanded upon Daniel's original 30-plate work.Cataloged by G.R. Murdock