CASSINI. Map of France. No. 1 to 87 and No. 88 to 175 [Paris, s.n., 1756-1787]. Two full-sized volumes, fawn half-basin with corners, smooth spine decorated, long-grained red morocco title-pieces and map numbering, untrimmed (Binding circa 1790). Exceptional collection of 175 copper-engraved plates, making up the entire General Map of France, entirely mounted on cloth mitre, to which has been added a flying assembly plan published by Lattré. The scale of the map is 1 line (2.256 mm) for 100 toises (100 × 1.949 m), which corresponds to a scale of approximately 1:86400. From 1683 onwards, Jean-Dominique Cassini took over the geodetic triangulation programme that Jean Picard had proposed to the Académie des Sciences in 1681. After several interruptions in the surveys and calculations until 1733, the work was resumed and completed in 1744, with the help of Jacques and César-François, Jean-Dominique's son and grandson, Philippe de La Hire and Jacques Maraldi, with the assistance of Lacaille, Outhier, Beauchamp, Lagrive, etc. Louis XV decided that a general and special map of France would be drawn up from the outline then produced, under Cassini's direction and the supervision of the Académie. But in 1756, in the grip of the Seven Years' War, the king withdrew the funds he had allocated to Cassini, who then founded a company of fifty associates, including the Marquise de Pompadour, Buffon, Montalembert, etc., agreeing to pay large sums on a regular basis in order to raise the funds needed to finish surveying the map. Other means, such as the retail sale of engraved sheets, or the institution of a subscription, made it possible to finance the undertaking. The quality of the work carried out by the Académie and the Cassini dynasty of geographical engineers enabled the definitive transition from astronomy to geodesy and then topography, exerting a profound influence on the whole of the 18th century and paving the way for modern cartography. Bindings rubbed, some marginal restorations to maps.