Jean Boutier, Directeur d’Etudes at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Marseille) and visiting scholar in the U-M Department of History, discusses new research on a little known project to map France, initiated by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), the powerful minister to Louis XIV.

After the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, Colbert became minister of finance in 1665. Colbert founded the Paris Observatory, the Academy of Sciences, and the French Academy of Rome. Appointing the astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini (1625-1712) to direct the Observatory, Colbert and Cassini initiated the geodetic survey of France. This effort led to the first modern topographic map of a nation, completed by a succession of Cassini’s descendants.