ANVILLE, JEAN BAPTISTE BOURGITIGNON D', a celebrated French geographer, b. at Paris in 1697, d. in 1782. He devoted his whole life to geographical science. Such was his natural taste for map-drawing that his first study of the ancient authors induced him to publish, at the age of 15, a map of Greece. His rare qualities gained him the friend ship of the Abbe de Songuerue, from whom he received those instructions which were the source of that profound and extensive knowledge lie subsequently acquired. He read the Greek and Latin historians and philosophers, as well as poets, specially noting the names and positions of cities and nations. lie advanced the science of geography, not only by the vast number of maps which he executed, but also by the treatises, full of erudition and of historic and critical details, in which he discussed numerous interesting questions. The works of A, announced by M. de Maine many years ago, were to have been contained in 6 vols., exclusive of the volumes of maps. The principal portion was
published in 1834 by Levrault. But the death of M. de Maine in 1832 stopped the quarto edition near the end of the twelfth volume, to which the map of Africa was however wanting, although the text had been added, with notes digested from the most recent investigations in that country. A. has left 211 maps and plans, and 78 memoirs, the most of which are inserted in the Reeueil des .317nnoires de l' Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres. His best map is that of ancient Egypt. His Orbis Veteribus .NOtus, and Orbis Bonzanus, are also invaluable. The same remark applies to his maps of Gaul, Italy, and Greece, both ancient and medieval. His maps of modern countries contain all the knowledge attained in his time. His valuable collection of maps was purchased in 1779 by the French government for the royal library.