Saint Catherines Press

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Nineteenth-Century Urban Cartography and the Scientific Ideal: The Case of Paris
Author(s): Antoine Picon
Source: Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 18, Science and the City (2003), pp. 135-149
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
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 Urban Cartography
Nineteenth-Century
and the Scientific Ideal:
The Case of Paris

By Antoine Picon*

ABSTRACT

Nineteenth-centuryParisiancartographywas markedby the emergenceof a new

cartographicgenre: the specialized atlas of the city. This genre was linked to a
changein the functionassignedto urbanmaps.Before the FrenchRevolution,the
plansof Parishadbeen shapedby eitherthe desireto portraythe city andits singu-
larityor the questfor accuracyin the representationof its layout.In contrast,nine-
teenth-centuryplans and atlases reflectedthe ambitionto understandthe city ac-
cordingto the light providedby the variousnaturalandsocial sciences.This article
explores the differentkinds of maps and atlases producedthroughoutthe nine-
teenthcenturyin relationto this ambition.Of specialinterestin this respectarethe
Bertillonfamily's thematicmaps based on statisticsgatheredby the Parisianad-
ministration.

CARTOGRAPHIC GENRES AND THE MEANING OF MAPS

Like other historical documents, maps can be interpreted on various levels.1 The first
and most evident one is related to the information they convey. Renaissance maps and
atlases enable the historian to measure the degree of knowledge of the New World that
had been acquired by the time of their production. A second level of analysis concerns
the graphic techniques used by the mapmaker.These techniques are linked to broader
issues, such as the definition of accuracy and the relation between observation and
representational conventions that prevailed in a given culture. Many historians of car-
tography have focused on these fundamental issues. There are, however, many other
ways to look at maps. For instance, one can pay attention to the genres to which they
belong. These genres, from the atlas of the world to the detailed representation of a
city, are defined by contrasting one with another. Each is permeated with preoccupa-
tions that can be better apprehended by taking into account the entire system of gen-
res and its characteristics. In literature, a convenient way to understand how tragedy

*Graduate School of Design, HarvardUniversity, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138;

apicon@gsd.harvard.edu.
The materialon which this articleis based was initially explored for an exhibitionheld in 1999 at
the Pavillonde l'Arsenal,Paris.See Antoine Picon andJean-PaulRobert,UnAtlasparisien:Le Dessus
des cartes (Paris:Pavillon de l'Arsenal, Picard, 1999).
1On the
meaningsof maps, see, e.g., ChristianJacob,L'Empiredes cartes: Approchetheoriquede
la cartographiea traversl'histoire (Paris:Albin Michel, 1992).

o2003 by The Historyof Science Society.All rightsreserved.0369-7827/03/1801-0008$ 10.00

OSIRIS2003, 18: 135-149 135

136 ANTOINEPICON

is definedat a given time-and whataims are currentlyassignedto it-is to place it

in the broaderframeof the existingliterarygenresandstudyits specificityin this con-
text. The same is trueof cartographicgenres.Theirdefinitionsand agendasare best
understoodby consideringthem as a system, the extensionand varietyof which re-
flect politicalandsocial concerns.
Followingthese premisesandapplyingthemto urbanmaps,I will examinein this
articlethe variousrepresentationsof Parisproducedin the nineteenthcentury.I will
show thatthe systemof cartographicgenresto which these representationsbelonged
was permeatedby the ambitionto transformthe Frenchcapitalinto a scientificobject
whose structureandfunctionscouldbe definedrigorously.This ambitionwas closely
relatedto politicalandsocial issues andgoals, suchas moreefficientcontrolof the ur-
ban populationand its activitiesto preventthe returnof revolutionaryevents. Maps
such as the Bertillons'thematicstudies of Parisianpopulation,trade,and industry
(whichI will discuss in the finalsectionof this article)were clearlymeantto provide
tools for a moreefficientmanagementof the city.
Inthehistoryof urbancartography, thenineteenthcenturyrepresentsa majorturning
point.Thisturningpointis especiallyclearin thecase of Paris,whichsharedwithplaces
suchas LondonandRomethe privilegeof beingamongEurope'smostfrequentlyrep-
resentedcities. To graspthe full extentof the change,a briefexaminationof Parisian
mapsfromthe Renaissanceto the end of the eighteenthcenturywill be useful.

PARISIANMAPS: FROMPORTRAITURETO GEOMETRICACCURACY

Throughoutthe early modernperiod,the emergenceand developmentof two major

genres markedParisiancartography:the portraitof the city and the geometricplan.
The two genresappearedsimultaneouslyin Italy,nearthe end of the MiddleAges, as
theydid in muchof the restof Europe,in the fifteenthcentury.In France,however,the
portrait,usinga bird's-eyeview,camefirst.TheearliestknownParisianportrait,prob-
ably supportedby King FranqoisI (r. 1515-1547), was realizedaround1525. That
portrait,now lost, inspiredall of the otherearlyplansof Paris,includingthe so-called
Plan of Basel, carriedout by GermainHoyau and engravedby Olivier Truschetin
the 1550s, and the 1572 plan of Paris publishedby George Braunin his Civitates
orbis terrarum.2The genre of the portrait would remain predominant until the mid-
of the firstplan of Paris,Matthaus
seventeenthcentury.Thoughnot an interpretation
Merian's famous Plan de la ville, cite, universite et faubourgs de Paris, which ap-
pearedin 1615, was still a portrait.3
The term"portrait" was linkedto the ambitionto depictnot only the layoutof the
city but also its appearanceandits spirit,as expressedthroughits mainmonuments.
For that reason the orientationgenerallychosen for the portraitsof Pariswas with
west at the top, which meantthe Seine flowed from top to bottom.Thatorientation
allowed cartographersto show the facades of Notre-Dameand other architectural
landmarkssuch as the city hall andthe palaceof the Louvre.As a cartographicgenre,
the variousportraitsof Parisbelonged to what Ptolemy had called "chorography,"

2 On the
history of the early maps of Paris, see Michel Le Moel, ed., Paris a vol d'oiseau (Paris:
Delegation a l'Action Artistiquede la Ville de Paris, 1995). See also Le Plan de Paris par Truschetet
Hoyau 1550 dit plan de Bale, Cahiersde la Rotonde9 (1986).
3 Matthaus
Merian,Plan de la ville, cite, universiteetfaubourgsde Paris avec la Descriptionde son
Antiquiteet Singularites(1615).
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 137

namelythe descriptionof places with theirsingularity,whereasgeographydealtpri-

marily with the entire world and the mathematicalrelationsbetween its different
parts.Althoughbasedon accuratesurveys,the firstplansof Parisgave precedenceto
the sensitive dimensionover the abstractsystem of coordinatesand distancesthat
formedthe scientificbasis of mapping.
By contrast,the geometricplanappearedas a directexpressionof this abstractsys-
tem. Its principleshad been formalizedby Leon BattistaAlberti in his Descriptio
urbisRomae,writtenbetween 1433 and 1445 andput into use by Leonardoin his fa-
mous 1502 plan of Imola, often consideredthe firstgeometricplan of a city. During
the sixteenthcentury,the geometricplan became quite commonin Italy,Spain, and
the Netherlands.As far as cartographyis concerned,Franceremainedbehindthese
countriesuntil the seventeenthcentury.4This backwardnessmay accountfor the late
developmentof Parisiangeometricplans.The firstones, suchas JeanBoisseau'sPlan
de la ville, cite, universite,isles etfaugxbourgsde Paris, betterknownas the Planof
the Colonelles,andJacquesGomboust'sLutetiaParis, werepublishedaround1650.5
By the end of the reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715), however,Francehad taken
the lead in Europeancartography,especially scientific cartography.Eighteenth-
centurymapsof Paris,suchas JeanDelagrive'sandRoussel's,reflectedthisnew lead-
ership.Parisianmapsbecamemore andmore accurate.In relationwith the develop-
mentof scientificcartography, theirorientationchanged,withthe northon top andthe
Seine flowingfromleft to right.The climaxof the questfor accuracywas reachedwith
EdmeVeriquet's monumentalplan,realizedbetween 1785 and 1791.6In parallelto
the fieldworkconsistingin a systematictriangulationof the city, morethansixty en-
gineers and draftsmenwere employedfor the realizationof the plan, in additionto
those necessaryfor the field operations.
Cartographicgenres, especially when they deal with cities, may appearsucces-
sively, but they are not replacingone another.Oldergenres surviveeven when new
ones develop.Hence despitethe arrivalof the geometricplan,the most famouseigh-
teenth-centuryParisianplan, the so-calledPlan of Turgot,was a 1739 portraitbased
on a bird's-eyeview of the houses andmonumentsof the city.7Let us note in passing
thatportraitsof Parisbasedon the Planof Turgotare still availabletodayfor tourists
who wantto takehome a souvenirof the city.

AN AGE OF ATLASES

In the historyof Parisiancartography, the changesbroughtby the nineteenthcentury

werebothquantitative andqualitative.Froma quantitative
standpoint,plansmultiplied.

4 The causes of RenaissanceFrench

cartographicbackwardnesshave been analyzedby HillaryBal-
lon, TheParis of Henri IV.Architectureand Urbanism(Cambridge:MIT Press, 1991), 212 ff.
5 JeanBoisseau, Plan de la ville, cite, universite,isles
etfaugxbourgsde Paris avec le project de la
nouvelle cloftureou nouvellesfortificationsdicelle parfes 16 quartiersou colonelles (Paris:1650); J.
Gomboust,LutetiaParis (Paris,1652).An enlighteningcommentaryon Gomboust'splancan be found
in L. Marin,Le Portraitdu roi (Paris:Minuit, 1981).
6 On Vemiquet'splan, see JeannePronteau,Edme Veriquet (1707-1804): Architecteet auteur du

"grandplan de Paris" (1785-1791) (Paris:Ville de Paris, Commission des TravauxHistoriques,

1986).
7 Louis de Bretez, Plan de Paris. Commencee'l'annee 1734. Dessine et Grave sous les ordres de
Messires Michel EtienneTurgot..., Henry Millon ..., Jean Claude Fauconnetde Vilde..., Claude
Augustin Josser ..., Antoine Meriau ..., Jean-Baptiste Julien Taitbout..., Jacquest Boucet...
(1739).
138 ANTOINEPICON

Like many other domains, urban cartography bore the mark of the industrial age.8
Whereas former plans appeared as singular realizations, as masterpieces bearing the
mark of the individual who had inspired them, the nineteenth-centurymapping of Paris
took on a massive characterand plans became more anonymous. In a more systematic
way than their predecessors, the new century's cartographersused other maps as a ba-
sis for their own interpretationof the city.
From a qualitative standpoint, the development of atlases was among the major
characteristics of nineteenth-century urban cartography.Atlases had long been used
to describe the various parts of the world. The novelty lay in the utilization of this
genre of document in the urban domain, as if a metropolis such as Paris were a uni-
verse of its own. Once, urban maps had been isolated documents, bordering on art
with their illusionist rendering and their quest for graphic elegance; now they were
more and more often grouped, bound together in volumes devoted to various aspects
of the urban fabric and life.
The cartographic techniques used in these atlases were no less diverse than their
subjects. While still employing traditional graphic codes, in use for centuries, cartog-
raphers also adopted the new conventions elaborated for thematic maps. Their abun-
dant production was quite representative of what was at stake in urban cartography at
the time.
These urban atlases proved to be a success, one linked to a new perception of the
city as a multilayered entity. Whereas portraits or geometric plans had focused on the
appearance of the city, on the layout of its streets, squares, and monuments, nine-
teenth-century cartography paid greater attention to the city's three-dimensional
character, to what lay underneath the surface. This evolution could already be per-
ceived during the second half of the eighteenth-century under the influence of two fac-
tors. First, the emerging geologic sciences began to explore the complexity of the
soil.9 In such a perspective, cities gradually ceased to be defined only by what was on
their surface. As early as 1742, for instance, the growing geologic sensibility inspired
the geographer Philippe Buache to render the first cross-section of Paris showing the
sedimentary terrain hidden below ground.10 Second, the urban functionalism that
spread among the eighteenth-century elite led, as historian Jean-Claude Perrot has
shown it in his classical study of Caen,"Ito greater attention being paid to buried infra-
structures such as water pipes and sewers. The famous cross-section of a city street by
the architect Pierre Patte, which appeared in his 1769 Memoires sur les Objets les plus
Importants de l'Architecture, epitomized this new approach.'2Architects and engi-
neers produced many representations of this type in the following decades.13
In the nineteenth century, sensitivity to the three-dimensional character of the city

8 The
changein the scale of cartographicproductionwas madeespecially visible duringWorldWar
I, when the Germansprintedandcirculatedmore thana billion maps for theirtroops.
9 On the
early developmentsof geology, see GabrielGohau,Histoire de la geologie (Paris:La De-
couverte, 1987).
O1Philippe Buache, Coupe de la ville de paris prise du septentrionau midi depuis la porte Saint-
Martinjusqu'a I'observatoireen passant par I'lle dupalais (Paris, 1742).
11Jean-ClaudePerrot,Genese d'uneville modeme: Caenau XVIIIesiecle (Paris:La
Haye, Mouton,
1975).
12PierrePatte,Memoiressur les
13The Ponts et Chaussees objetsles plus importantsdel'architecture (Paris:Rozet, 1769), pl.2.
engineerPierreCharlesLesage, for instance,appliedthis type of repre-
sentationto Londonin his 1785 journalof travelin England.Lesage, Journal et Observationssur les
Cheminsd'Angleterreetprincipalementsur les GrandesRoutes,1784-1785, MS 48, Ecole nationale
des Ponts et Chaussees.
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 139

deepenedas the urbanelite came to see the city as a complex sedimentationof natu-
ral and humanlayers.No single map could give a satisfyingaccountof this foliated
reality;thusthe recourseto a seriesof maps,to atlases,was in manycases a necessity.
Often,these atlases were producedunderthe aegis of the state,the dataon which
they were based collectedby administrations.Producedin close relationto adminis-
trativetasks, atlases were generallymeant not as informationaldocumentsfor the
generalpublic,butas tools to aid governmentofficialsas they soughtto betterunder-
standandmanagethe city.Almostfromthe start,theywerean integralpartof the pro-
ject to transformthe still medievalParisinto,to quoteWalterBenjamin,the very"cap-
ital of the nineteenthcentury."'4

CHANGINGIDEALSIN URBANCARTOGRAPHY

The emergenceof a new cartographicgenreusuallyreflectsa changein the objectives

assignedto maps.In the case of Paris,the developmentof atlaseswas linkedto new
preoccupationsandideals. In orderto graspthem,let us returna momentto the por-
traitsandgeometricplansof the earlymoder period.
The earliestportraitsof Pariswere meantto emphasizethe antiquityanddignityof
the city.While the firstportraitof the city was probablyrealizedunderthe patronage
of the king as expressionsof his power,andthe plansthatfollowed were,for the most
part,privateenterprisesimbuedwith hopesof financialgain,bothcouldfollow a sim-
ilarpolitical agenda,since praiseof the Frenchcapitalthrougha flatteringdepiction
was inseparablefrom exaltationof the monarchy.For instance, contraryto topo-
graphicalreality,sixteenth-centuryportraitsdepictedParisas roundto suggest a re-
semblancebetween Parisand imperialRome, which Vitruviushad describedas al-
most circular.
Althoughthe firstgeometricplans(suchas JacquesGomboust's)still followed this
agenda,theirdevelopmentwas connectedto a new concernfor urbanimprovement.
Renderingthe layoutof the city streets,squares,andmonumentsas preciselyas pos-
sible graduallybecamelinkedto urbanpolicies concernedwith the pursuitof embel-
lissement(beautification).'5Forlate-seventeenth-andearly-eighteenth-century plan-
ners, beautification centered on the design of monumentalsequences such as royal
squaresand perspectives.Thus both embellissementand geometricmappingwere
based on geometricpatternsand entailed operationssuch as leveling, aiming, and
measuringangles anddistances,giving the two a naturalconnection.Duringthe sec-
ondhalf of the nineteenthcentury,this connectionwouldbe evokedagainby Adolphe
Alphand.Fora preparatory plateof his atlason Parisianpublicworks,he employeda
reducedcopy of Veriquet's plan to presentthe variousbeautificationprojectson
which the Commissiondes Artisteshadelaboratedduringthe Revolution.16The con-
nectionbetweengreatgeometricplanssuchas Veriquet's andthe developmentof ur-
bancompositionwas strikingindeed.

14Walter Paris capitale du XIXesiecle: Le Livredes passages (Paris:Cerf, 1989).

15On the Benjamin,
questionof beautification,see, among others,Jean-LouisHarouel,L'Embellissementdes
villes: L'UrbanismefranFais au XVIIIesiecle (Paris: Picard, 1993); Michel Le Moel and Sylvie
Descat, eds., L'Urbanismeparisien au siecle des lumieres(Paris:Delegation a l'Action Artistiquede
la Ville de Paris, 1997).
16 Paris de 1789 a 1798 dit plan de la CommissiondesArtistes,Ville de Paris,Service Techniquede
DocumentationFonciere.
140 ANTOINEPICON

While remainingfaithfulto the ideal of accuracyfor whichtheirimmediateprede-

cessors strove,creatorsof nineteenth-centuryatlases interpretedthatideal in a new
light.Urbandesignfor convenienceandbeautificationwas no longerthe ultimateob-
jective of mapping;the new cartographicgenre soughtto make many otherdimen-
sions besides the urbanfabricandits possible improvementsvisible. Some of the at-
lases depictedthe city's hiddenstructures,its geology, andits undergroundnetworks,
while otherstriedto give an idea of the economicandsocial factorsthatshapedurban
life. Specializedmapsof majorcities such as London,Paris,andBerlinmultipliedin
orderto deal with a proliferatingurbanreality.
Shapedby the desire to providean objectiveimage, or rathera series of objective
images, of the city, urbancartographybecamemore and more permeableto the sci-
entificdiscoursesandpracticesof the time.Throughthisprocessof impregnation,the
realitythatwas representedacquireda new scientificstatus.Mappingthe city thusbe-
came partof its transformation into an objectapprehensiblein scientificterms.
Morethanaccuracy,objectivitywas now at stakein the mappingof Parisandother
majornineteenth-centurycapitals.At a time when the city was becoming a literary
and artisticsubjectin itself, in works from Balzac to Baudelaire,from picturesque
descriptionsof ancientmonumentsby antiquariansto the evocationof the new urban
life by engraverssuch as HonoreDaumier,cartographyaligned itself with the sci-
ences then being used to try to understandthe urbanphenomenonin rigorousand
measurableterms.Behindthis attemptlay a new political agenda,one shapedby the
politicalandsocial unrestto which the Frenchcapitalwas againandagainsubjected.
Understandinghow the city was organizedand above all how it functionedseemed
to be a preconditionfor its pacification.In orderto appearas the truecapitalof the
nineteenthcentury,Parishadto offerthe reassuringimage of a totallycontrolledme-
tropolis.
Patronizedby the state,cartographywouldcontributeto this imageof totalcontrol,
thoughthe role played by even the most famousnineteenth-century Parisianatlases
was often moresymbolicthanpractical.Indeed,the informationthey conveyedcould
be found in numerousother administrativedocuments.The atlases servedratheras
printedmonumentstestifyingto the workof the publicauthorities.Hence theirpres-
entationon solemnoccasionssuch as the worldexhibitions.The firstsheetsof theAt-
las souterrainde la ville de Paris andthe volumeeditedby Alphandon the improve-
mentsof the capital,Les Travauxde Paris,whichwill be dealtwithin the next section,
were thuspresentedto the publicduringthe 1855 and 1889 Parisianexhibitions.
For the realizationof atlases,naturalsciences such as geology and hydrology,of
course,were mobilized.But these were not the only sciences being employedin car-
tography.Statisticalmaps,a new type of mapdevelopingat a rapidpace, utilizedthe
emergingsocial sciences. The firstof these maps were devised from a medicalper-
spective,as a meansof graspingthe full extentof eventssuchas the 1832 choleraepi-
demic, which caused more than 18,000 deaths in Paris alone. The maps usually
showedthe distributionof mortalityin cities struckby the disease. Subsequently,the
spatialdistributionsof manyotherphenomena,fromprostitutionto crime,weremade
visible throughthematicmaps.By the end of the century,JacquesBertillonwent so
as far as to representthe variouslevels of welfareof Parisianhouseholdsin his Atlas
de statistiquegraphiquede la ville de Paris.
Permeatedby representationsborrowedfrom the physical sciences, urbancartog-
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 141

raphywas also placedunderthe aegis of an oppositionborrowedfromthe biological

sciences, namelythe antinomybetween anatomyandphysiology.In the nineteenth-
centuryculturalframe,sucha borrowingwas considerednaturalsince people saw the
city as analogousto a giant organism.Jules Michelet, for instance,declared,"The
legacy of centuriesof history,the form of Paris is not only beautifulbut truly or-
ganic."'7Victor Hugo compared the French capital city to a giant madrepore in his
novel Les Miserables.'8As with any organism,the city was to be observedas both a
staticarrangement of partsanda seriesof functionsperformeddynamically.Anatomy
andphysiology,structureand life, this fundamentaloppositionwill serve as a guide
on the tourof nineteenth-centuryParisiancartographyI would like to takenow.

ANATOMYOF THE CITY:FROM GEOLOGICSTRUCTURESTO NETWORKS

The emergenceof a new cartographicgenre does not usually make older types of
maps obsolete. Throughoutthe nineteenthcentury,geometric plans remainedthe
most common urbanmaps. But these geometricplans were not only producedin
greaterquantitiesbutalso conceivedin a differentlight thantheirpredecessors.They
now had to representthe rapidtransformationof the urbanstructureandfabric.This
was especiallythe case with Parisbecauseof the majorchangesbroughtaboutin the
Frenchcapitalduringthe SecondEmpire,fromthe Haussmannianpercees to the 1860
extensionthatenlargedit from 3,288 to 7,088 hectares.19 Parisianmaps offeredim-
ages of the process of transformationas it was actuallytakingplace. But theirfunc-
tionwas notlimitedto that.Widelydiffused,theyrepresentedalso key elementsin the
communicationsstrategythat made this process synonymouswith the creationof
a new and exemplaryurbanreality, with the emergence of a model to be copied
in colonies and foreign countries. Maps were part of the ambition expressed by
NapoleonandGeorges-EugeneHaussmannto transformParisinto the culturalcapi-
tal of Europe.Such an ambitioncould still be tracedin the 1878 Plan general de la
ville de Pariset de ses environscomprenantles bois de Boulogneet de Vincennes,pub-
lished by the trueinheritorof Haussmann,the Ponts et ChausseesengineerAdolphe
Alphand.20On this beautifullyengraveddocument,the city appearedas a perfect
jewel enshrinedbetweenthe two majorparks,the Bois de Boulogne andthe Bois de
Vincennes,thatAlphandhadcarefullyplanned.
The visible structureof the city was only partof what nineteenth-centurymaps
showed. Special attentionwas paid to the underground,to its geology and hydrol-
ogy.21In 1858, for instance,the mining engineerAchille-JosephDelesse published
two mapssummarizingthe knowledgethathadbeen gainedsince the beginningof the
17
Quoted in FrancoiseChoay,L'Urbanisme,utopies, et realites: Une anthologie (Paris:Le Seuil,
1965), 21.
18VictorHugo, Les Miserables (Paris:Le Livre de Poche, 1998), 2:1687.
19On the transformationof Parisunderthe Second Empire,see FranqoisLoyer,Paris XIXesiecle:
L'Immeubleet la rue (Paris:Hazan, 1987); Jean des Cars and PierrePinon, eds., Paris-Haussmann:
Le Pari d'Haussmann (Paris:Les Editions du Pavilion de 1'Arsenal,Picard, 1991). On their social
and economical aspects, see as well JeanneGaillard,Paris, la Ville(1852-1870) (Paris:L'Harmattan,
1997).
20 Plan general de la ville de Paris et de ses environscomprenantles bois de Boulogne et de Vin-
cennes dresse a l'echelle de 1 /10 000,... sous la directionde M. Alphand(1878).
21 On the scientific
study of the urbansoil, see Sabine Barles, La Ville Deletere: Medecins et in-
genieurs dans l'espace urbainXVIIIe-XIXesiecle (Seyssel: ChampVallon, 1999).
142 ANTOINEPICON

Figure 1. Quarries of the Saint-Jacques district in Paris, after Eugene de Fourcy, Atlas
souterrainde la ville de Paris(Paris: Ch.de MourguesFreres,1859).

century and the 1811 publication by Alexandre Brongniart and Georges Cuvier of the
geologic plan and cross-section of the Paris region.22
Limestone quarries that had been in use since the Middle Ages were among the ma-
jor characteristics of the Parisian underground. Surveying of the complex layout of
quarries, which spread to two or three levels in some districts, had begun near the end
of the eighteenth century. In 1815, more than 3,000 partial maps had already realized
by the administration in charge of the quarries. This work eventually led to the publi-
cation in 1859 of the spectacularAtlas souterrain de la ville de Paris.23(See Figure 1.)
During the survey and the production of this atlas, new cartographic issues had to be
addressed-such as how to connect the reference points used respectively for the
underground and the surface, and how to represent a three-dimensional, often highly
irregularlabyrinth of galleries. Some of the graphic techniques used for the Atlas sou-
terrain had already been tested in the 1816 Plan de la plaine des catacombes au midi
de Paris24 (These so-called Parisian catacombs were actually part of the quarries.)
But the atlas was unique in its scope and achievement.
Despite its exceptional character,which, as I noted in the previous section, made it
analogous to a monument, the Atlas souterrain was quite typical of the relation be-
tween the new cartographic production and the state. Like Delesse's maps, the atlas
was not available to the public, being reserved for officials and administrations. In the
22
AlexandreBrongniartand Georges Cuvier,Essai sur la geographie mineralogiquedes environs
de Paris avec une carte geognostique, et des coupes de terrain (Paris, 1811); A. Delesse, Carte
geologique souterraineet carte hydrologiquede la ville de Paris (1858).
23
Eugene de Fourcy,Atlas souterrainde la ville de Paris (Paris:Ch. de MourguesFreres 1859).
24
This plan was published in Louis Hericartde Thury, Description des catacombes de Paris,
precedee d 'unprecis historiquesur les catacombesde tous les peuples de I'ancienet duNouveau Con-
tinent(Paris:Bossange et Masson, et a Londres, 1816).
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 143

nineteenth-century Parisian cartographic system, such exclusive atlases were often

works of prestige that served as sources for more common, accessible realizations,
such as J. T. Dunkel's 1885 book Topographie et consolidation des carrieres sous
Paris, based primarily on data from the Atlas souterrain.25
The Atlas souterrain was representative of the various cultural and political con-
cerns that expressed themselves through cartography.At the time of the atlas's publi-
cation, mapping the undergroundin particularheld political and social meaning.26On
the various plates of the atlas, the striking opposition between the irregularpatterns of
the underground and the simpler geometry of the surface had something to do with
fear of the hidden, the obscure, and the repressed-as if the underground acted as a
kind of substitute for all sorts of threats. Among these threats, the fear of social unrest
was also present in the desire to make every level of the city visible, to replace the soil,
as it were, with transparent glass. It is no surprise that police officer Javert, the em-
bodiment of law and order in Les Miserables, went after Jean Valjean in the sewers of
Paris. In the eyes of the nineteenth-century elite, the underground symbolized the re-
sistance of the citizens to sanitation and pacification. Thus exposing the structure of
the city's bowels, making all aspects visible, was part of a larger program of rational
control. Through cartography,the role of science and technology in this program was
epitomized. The quarries, entrusted to engineers from the late eighteenth century on,
had become scientific objects, just as the atlas that revealed their complex maze had.
From the nineteenth-century perspective, the urban soil contained other hidden ob-
jects that could be approached in a scientific way, namely the archaeological remains
of former ages. Archaeology was among the century's new sciences; in 1843 one of
the first archaeological maps of Paris was published by Jean-Baptiste-Prosper Jollois,
a Ponts et Chaussees engineer who had busied himself with the survey of the ancient
monuments of Egypt during Bonaparte's campaign before joining the ranks of the
antiquarians.27
Above ground, cartography dealt with the new fields of urban property and real es-
tate structure.The complexity of the plots equaled that of the geologic layers, a com-
plexity described in the various surveys made for the Parisian Cadastre, the land reg-
ister administration.28Launched during the First Empire for fiscal tax purposes, the
Cadastre gave birth to atlases such as Theodore Jacoubet's Atlas general de la ville,
desfaubourgs et des monuments de Paris and Philippe Vasserot and J. S. Bellanger's
Atlas general des quarante-huit quartiers de la ville de Paris. Although their princi-
ple had been adumbratedby Old Regime documents such as the plan terriers, which
described urban feudal properties, these atlases were of an unrivaled precision.
Through the Cadastre and its graphic derivatives, the anatomy of Paris included a

25 J. T.
Dunkel, Topographieet consolidation des carrieres sous Paris avec une description
geologique et hydrologiquedu sol et quatreplans cotes en couleur (Paris:Vve A. Morel et Cie, Des
Fossez et Cie, 1885).
26 Cf. Rosalind Williams, Notes on the Underground:An Essay on Technology,Society, and the
Imagination(Cambridge:MIT Press, 1990).
27 Jean-Baptiste-Prosper Jollois, "Plande Parisen 1839 surlequel sont indiqueesles voies romaines
de l'antique Lutetiaet les localit6s ou l'on a trouve sur son sol, en divers temps des vestiges de con-
structionsantiqueset des antiquit6sde toute naturedes epoques romaine et gallo-romaine,"in Me'-
moiresur les antiquitesromaineset gallo-romainesde Paris (Paris, 1843).
28 The nineteenth-centuryParisianCadastreis still awaiting its historian. See, meanwhile, Jean-

PhilippeDumas, "Representationet descriptiondes propri6etsa Parisau XIXe siecle: Cadastreet plan

parcellaire,"Melanges de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome:Italie et Mediterranee111 (1999): 779-93.
144 ANTOINEPICON

radioscopyof urbanreal estate.Aroundthe same period,real estateplayed a funda-

mentalrole in Balzac's characterizationof the city. A similarambitionto cope with
the cruderealityof urbanpropertypermeatedboththe Cadastreandits derivativesand
Balzac's "Scenesde la vie parisienne."
Othernineteenth-century atlasesweredevotedto the city institutionalorganization.
Forinstance,N. M. Maire's1821Atlas administratifdela ville de Paris providedin-
formationon the layoutof the twelve arrondissementsandforty-eightdistrictsof the
city priorto Haussmann'sextension.9Informationfromthe organizationof the city's
lightingto the locationof its mainhospitalscould also be foundin the atlas.
The accent put on institutionalorganizationwas especially pronouncedin the
Parisiancase, as a comparisonwith similarmapsandatlasesproducedin Londonand
Berlin makes strikinglyclear.The face of the Frenchcapital changedand changed
again from the Revolution on as the various governmentsthat ruled France en-
actedpolicies aimedat organizingandmodernizingthe city. Accordingto Adolphe
Alphand,these governments,althoughdifferentone from another,had pursuedthe
sameobjectiveregardingParis:to adaptit to thenew needsof thepostrevolutionary era.
Througha uniformgraphicpresentation,Alphandsuggestedthattherewas a conti-
nuityin the way this objectivehadbeen pursuedby the variousgovernments,a conti-
nuityhe himselfepitomizedsince he hadservedthe SecondEmpireandtheThirdRe-
publicwith equaldedication.The dismissalby Alphand,who had trainedinitiallyas
an engineer,of the idea that differingpolitical considerationshad affectedmodern-
izationpolicies was rootedin a belief in the objectivenatureof urbanpolicies when
they were firmlybased on an adequatescientificand technologicalknowledge.Alp-
handgave a strikingvisualtranslationof thisbelief in the glossy atlas,Les Travauxde
Paris, whichhe publishedon the occasionof the 1889 ParisInternationalExhibition.
(See Figure2.) Througha series of maps showing the spatialand technicalorgani-
zationof the city from 1789 to 1889, Alphandemphasizedthe continuitythathe felt
characterizedthe varioustransformationsof the Frenchcapital.30In manycases, the
continuitywas mere fiction.Alphand'sreconstitutionof the planningprocess of the
RevolutionaryCommissiondes Artistes,for instance,was basicallyinaccurate.The
main reason for this inaccuracywas Alphand'sinsistence on the communityof in-
spirationbetweentheplanof the commissionandthe Haussmanniantransformations.
The plates describingthe variousstages of developmentof watersupplyand sew-
ers networksconstitutedthe most telling partof Les Travauxde Paris.This develop-
ment was to a large extentthe work of the Second Empire,which built hundredsof
kilometersof undergroundgalleries in a few decades. (The enterprisehad been al-
readydescribedby the chief engineerin chargeof it, EugeneBelgrand,in his monu-
mentalpublicationLes Travauxsouterrainsde Paris, but though abundantlyillus-
trated,this worklackedthe expressivequalityof Alphand'sseries of maps.)31
On these maps,the city appearedas an organictissue permeatedby pipes andsew-
ers, like a giantbrainirrigatedby arteriesandveins. The visual analogywas not for-
tuitous,for one of the ambitionsof nineteenth-century urbannetworkingwas to con-
29 N.M. Maire,Atlas administratifde la ville de Paris (Paris, 1821).
30
AdolpheAlphand,Les Travauxde Paris 1789-1889 (Paris, 1889).
31
EugeneBelgrand,Les Travauxsouterrainsde Paris (Paris:Dunod, 1875-1887). On Belgrand,see
PhilippeCebronde Lisle, L'Eaua Paris au XIXesiecle (Ph.D. diss., Universit6de ParisIV-Sorbonne,
1991).
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 145

Figure 2. Thesewersof Paris in 1889, afterAdolpheAlphand,Les Travaux de Paris 1789-

ciliate two objectives:modernizethe city accordingto the principlesof mechanical

efficiency,while retainingits organicand picturesquecharacter,a picturesquechar-
acterespecially pronouncedin the medievaldistncts. This dual concernwith mod-
ernizationandpreservationwas typicalof the period.Nineteenth-century politicians,
engineers, and architectsdestroyed ancient cities while trying to preserve their
essence.32In the Parisiancase, this concernwas to a certainextentresponsiblefor the
rejectionof the gridprinciplefor the new partsof the city. Insteadof using a regular
layoutlike the one adoptedfor the extensionof New York,Haussmannianengineers
andarchitectsmadefrequentuse of neoclassicalcompositionalpatternssupposedto
be both efficientand picturesque.33 Among these engineersand architects,Alphand
was especiallyconsciousof this continuitybetweenthe techniquesof embellissement
and Haussmannization.Hence his abortedattemptto use Verniquet'splan for Les
Travaux
deParis.
32 Regardingarchitecture,this theme has been dealt with by Bruno Fortierin L'Amour des villes
(Brussels:Mardaga,1989).
33 Cf. Antoine Picon, "Les Modeles de la Metropole:Les Polytechniciens et l'amenagement de
Paris,"in Le Parisdespolytechniciens: Des inge'nieurs dansla ville,ed. Bruno Belhoste, Francine
Masson,andAntoinePicon (Paris:Delegationa l'ActionArtistiquede laVille de Paris, 1994), 137-50.
146 ANTOINEPICON

PHYSIOLOGYOF THE CITY:NINETEENTH-CENTURYPARISIANTHEMATICMAPS

During the nineteenth century, the greatest novelty in urban cartography came from
the desire to make visible not only the city's complex layered structure, but also the
most salient features of its life. This attempt at visualizing the physiology of the city
was, of course, intimately linked to the rapidly developing medical sciences as well
as to the emerging social sciences. As mentioned in section four ("Changing Ideals in
Urban Cartography"),medical maps came first, with the 1834 Rapport sur la marche
et les effets du cholera-morbus dans Paris. The conclusions of this report describing
the 1832 cholera epidemic were summarized by a map showing the distribution of the
mortality rate throughout the forty-eight districts of pre-Haussmannian Paris.34The
document was a choropleth map, that is to say a statistical map in which the data are
presented as averages applying equally to all sections of the appropriateenumeration
zones. Such a technique had already been used by Baron Charles Dupin in his 1827
Cartefigurative de l'instruction populaire de la France on which the various levels of
education were made visible by a system of shades, rangingfrom the black of utter ig-
norance to the white of knowledge.35
Dupin's map belonged to what was called at the time statistique morale (moral sta-
tistics), a discipline found among the members of the Academie des Sciences Morales
of the Institut de France. Moral statistics was inseparable from a reformist agenda
whose influence can be seen not only in Dupin's map, but also in the 1834 report on
the cholera epidemic. The use of shades enabled the authors of the report to denounce
the poor housing conditions found in the center of Paris, because they clearly encour-
aged the spread of disease. Thus the document and its map paved the way for Hauss-
mannian modernization.
Another interesting feature of the map was its reference to administrative divisions.
For the authors of the report, the cholera revealed the social inequalities at stake in
these divisions, and thus the administrative and political dimension of the epidemic
was made as visible as the purely medical one. A comparison with the map produced
two years later for a report on the effects of the cholera in Hamburgmakes the Parisian
document even more telling. The German authors of Die Cholera Epidemie des
Jahres 1832, while using a system of shades again, decided not to use the administra-
tive divisions of their city.36Thus in Hamburg, the cholera epidemic could be repre-
sented as a naturalphenomenon having nothing to do with administrative boundaries;
not so in Paris, where the evidence revealed the epidemic as a social phenomenon re-
lated to administrative and political issues.
The strong connection between moral statistics and the early Parisian thematic
maps was even more pronounced in the 1836 study of prostitution by Alexandre Par-
ent-Duchatelet, a physician, hygienist, and social reformer who had been a member
of the commission in charge of the cholera report. The map showing the distribution
of the prostitutes in the forty-eight Parisian districts was conceived according to the

34
"Tableaud'assemblagedes 48 quartiersde la ville de Paris,offrantdansle meme tems le degrere-
spectif d'intensite des ravagesque le cholera y a exerc6,"in Rapportsur la marche et les effets du
cholera-morbusdans Paris et les communesrurales du departementde la Seine: annee 1832 (Paris:
Imprimerie Royale,1834).
35
On Dupin's map and its principle, see Gilles Palsky, Des chiffres et des cartes: Naissance et
developpementde la cartographiequantitativefranCaiseau XIXesiecle (Paris:C.T.H.S.,1996), 62-7.
36 A
reproductionof this map can be found in A.-H. Robinson,Early ThematicMappingin the His-
tory of Cartography(Chicago:Univ. of Chicago Press, 1982), 171.
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 147

samepatternas the mapassessingthe epidemic'seffects.37The documentsolidly sup-

portedthe connectionthathad been establishedbetweendisciplinessuch as history,
ethnology,empiricalsociology, andurbancartography.
Throughoutthe nineteenthcentury,statisticalknowledge regardingParis devel-
oped at a rapidpace.Afterthe census of 1817, the decisionhadbeen madeto publish
statisticaldataregardingParison a regularbasis. Between 1817 and 1860, eight vol-
umes of a Recueildes recherchesstatistiquessur la ville de Paris et le departementde
la Seine were published.In 1865, a monthlybulletinbegan to be published;it was
soon supplementedby a weekly one. In 1880, officialsdecidedto publisha statistical
yearbook,theAnnuairestatistiquede la ville de Paris,as well. Thepresentationof the
Annuairewas basedon the anatomy/physiologydichotomythatwe have used in this
article, for it began with geologic and geographicdata, with figuresregardingthe
technicalinfrastructure of the city, beforeturningto demography.38
The multiplicationof these documentswas accompaniedby a tendency to rely
moreandmoreheavily on scientificstatistics.The early statisticalserviceof the city
of Paris had been dealing primarilywith practicalcounts and statements.The ap-
pointmentin 1878 of a commission in chargeof municipalstatisticsepitomizeda
trendtowarda greatersophisticationin processingthe availableinformation.39 In ad-
ditionto officials such as the prefectof the Seine and the directorof the Parisianad-
ministration,the commissioncomprisedfamousstatisticianssuch as ToussaintLoua
andEmile Levasseuras well as Dr.Louis-AdolpheBertillon.The commissionsought
to improvethe gatheringandthe processingof statisticaldata.Forthatpurpose,it ad-
vocatedthe creationof a new servicein chargeof municipalstatistics.Louis-Adolphe
Bertillonwas appointedheadof this new service.Withhis father-in-law, Achille Guil-
lard,Bertillonhelpedto establishkey aspectsof the new discipline,such as mortality
and marriagerate.After Bertillon'sdeathin 1883, his son JacquesBertillon,also a
physician,not only replacedhis fatheras the service's head (a positionhe held until
1913) butalso continuedhis theoreticalandempiricalwork.
The two Bertillonswere amongthe foundersof moderndemography.40 They were
both involvedin reflectionsregardingthe visual expressionof statisticaldata.With
Emile Cheyssonandothereconomistsandstatisticians,Louis-Adolphetook partin a
discussionin 1878 on the graphiccodes used for thematicmaps.Jacquespublished
variousstatisticalmapsof Paris,beginningin 1889 witha seriesrelatedto the Parisian
populationand its variouspathologies-Cartogrammes et diagrammesrelatifsa la
population parisienne.41 His most remarkable realization, however, was the statistical
atlas he publishedin 1889 and 1891.42Inspiredby Cheysson'sAlbumde statistique

37 AlexandreParent-Duchatelet,"Distributiondes
prostitueesdans chacun des 48 quartiersde la
ville de Paris,"in De la Prostitutiondans la ville de Paris, considere'esous le rapportde l'hygiene
publique,de la moraleet de l'administration(Paris:J. B. Baillieres, 1836). On Parent-Duchatelet'sre-
port, see Alain Corbin'sintroductionto the partialreprintof the report:AlexandreParent-Duchatelet,
La Prostitutiona Paris au XIXesiecle (Paris:Le Seuil, 1981).
38Annuairestatistiquede la ville de Paris, annee 1880 (Paris:ImprimerieNationale, 1881).
39 Villede Paris: Proces-verbauxdes Seances de la Commission
Speciale de StatistiqueMunicipale,
Archivesde Paris, 18Eb/37.
40 Cf. Michel
Dupaquier,"La Famille Bertillon et la naissance d'une nouvelle science sociale: La
Demographie,"in Annales de DemographicHistorique(1983): 293-311.
41
Jacques Bertillon, Cartogrammeset diagrammes relatifs a la population parisienne et a la
frequence des principales maladiespendant la periode 1865-1887 (Paris:Masson, 1889).
42
Initially,the Atlas was meantas a periodicalpublication.Only the two issues (1889 and 1891) ap-
peared.
148 ANTOINEPICON

Figure 3. Tonnage of goods that have arrived in Paris or have departedfrom it through
waterand railwaysin 1889, afterJacquesBertillon,Atlas de statistiquegraphiquede la ville
de Paris(1891).

graphique, published by the Ministry of Public Works,43the Atlas de statistique

graphique de la ville de Paris presented the reader with a series of thematic maps and
charts devoted to various aspects of city activity: the tonnage of goods entering Paris
by the Seine, by road, or by train were represented, just as the product of the octroi of
Paris, or the consumption of meat and oysters. (See Figure 3.) The data were taken
from the Annuaire statistique de la ville de Paris.
Like Cheysson's Album, Bertillon's Atlas made use of a striking variety of graphic
techniques. Many of them, such as flow lines, had been invented by the Ponts et
Chaussees engineer Joseph Minard, who was among the pioneers of French statisti-
cal maps.44For Minard-as for his British and Belgian counterparts, Henry Drury
Harness and Alphonse Belpaire who had also made pioneering contributions to
thematic cartography-there was a strong link between mapping and engineering
projects. Their early statistical maps were initially produced to assess the traffic and
profitability of transportation infrastructures, such as roads, canals, and railways.
Bertillon's atlas marked a new stage insofar as what was now at stake was an ability

43 On the Album,see Palsky,Des chiffreset des cartes (cit. n. 35), 141-62.

44On Minard'scontributionto thematiccartography,see Palsky,Des chiffreset des cartes (cit. n.
35); see also JosephKonvitz,Cartographyin France1660-1848: Science,Engineering,and Statecraft
(Chicago:Univ. of Chicago Press, 1987).
 NINETEENTH-CENTURYCARTOGRAPHYAND THE URBAN IDEAL 149

to see and to controleverything.The statisticalmaps were providingreaderswith a

kindof panopticalview, one enablingdecisionsto be made.
WithBertillon'satlas,the ambitionto relatescience andthe city was especiallyevi-
dent.In one report,the secretaryof the commissionin chargeof municipalstatistics
stated:"Forstatisticalstudies,Parisoffers conditionsthatare perhapsmet to such a
degreein no othercity. Withoutbeing the most importantcity in the world,Parisis
the one wherea completecentralizationmakesit possibleto pursueall the researches
that an administrationcan launchor order.Centralizationimplies indeed thatinfor-
mationis gatheredeverywhereby civil servantsof the same kind.This alone would
be enoughto qualifyParisas an admirablelaboratoryfor the scientistandthe admin-
istrator."45
Althoughfarfetched,the metaphorrevealsthe scientificambitionthatper-
meated Parisianmapping.Throughoutthe nineteenthcentury,plans were used to
visualize scientificdatarangingfrom geology to moralstatistics.Using the city as a
framework,they contributedto its transformationinto a scientificsubjectof its own.
Nineteenth-century Pariswas probablynot a laboratory,but it was certainlya milieu
thathadto be studiedusing every scientificresourceavailable.
45
Ville de Paris, Commissionspeciale de statistiquemunicipale.Rapportsommairepar Henri Le
Roux.Archives de Paris, 18Eb/37.