DE BRAHM, William Gerard (1717-99). Caroline meridionale et partie de la Georgie Par le Chevr. Bull Gouverneur Lieutenant. le Capitaine Gascoign, Chevr. Bryan. et de Brahm Arpenteur Général de la Caroline Meridle. et un Arpenteurs de la Georgie, en 4 Feuilles [with inset strip map:] Cours del la Riviere d'Hudson et la Communication avec le Canada Par le Lac Champlain Jusqu'au Fort Chambly par Sauthier. Paris: Chez le Rouge rue des grands Augustins, 1777. Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour, on four sheets, partially joined to form two folding sheets, one joined section: 29 x 40 1/2 inches, the other 30 1/2 x 40 1/4 inches, with strengthened left margins.

A very fine copy of this important large scale map of the Carolinas and Georgia, with an inset of the course of the Hudson River, an early French edition of the most important source map of the region for the second half of the 18th century.

The rare Le Rouge edition of De Brahm's 'A Map of South Carolina and Part of Georgia,' with the addition of Le Rouge's version of Claude Sauthier's map of the course of the Hudson River. Cumming writes of the De Brahm's map: 'This map shows the coast from the North Carolina boundary line southward to St. Mary's River in Georgia and extends westward to the Indian country ... For the coastal region and up the larger rivers as far as the settlements extend, great care and detail in surveying is evident ... The actual amount of topographical information given ... is impressive.' (Cumming p.280). Le Rouge explains the presence of the strip map of the course of the Hudson as a sort of bonus. Seeing that the fourth sheet of the map was largely blank, and as a 'thank you' to the map-buying public after forty years in the business, he decided to add 'Cours de Riviere d'Hudson qui est un chef d'oeuvre de Sauthier' which sells for 3 pounds 12 shillings in London. The fine strip-map actually takes the place of the large title vignette and index of land owners in South Carolina and Georgia that is found on the edition of 1757.

De Brahm emigrated from Germany to Georgia in 1751. His long service as a military engineer in the army of Charles VII of Bavaria placed him in good stead, his talents were recognized and his advice and designs for fortifications much sought after. These requests for advice involved much travelling, and allowed him to gather a great deal of information about South Carolina and Georgia. After less than two years he felt confident enough to announce his intention of publishing a map of the area and asking for information from land owners who wanted their plantations included. But it wasn't until 1757 that the map was eventually published. De Brahm became the Surveyor General of the Southern District of North America, and his map remained the most important general source map of the area for the rest of the eighteenth century.

Cf. Cumming, The Southeast in Early Maps, 310 (1757 edition, mentions Le Rouge edition); cf. Degrees of Latitude, 57 (1757 edition); Phillips, A List of Maps of America, p.820.