55 Francois de Belleforest – Map of France (Description Generale de Toute la France) – Woodcut Map (1575)

This large and rare woodcut map, titled Description Generale de Toute la France, depicts France with parts of Switzerland. It is based on Ortelius' first map of France from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, but is notably rarer due to its limited publication history. The map features an extremely fine cut for a woodcut and is ruled in brown ink. This woodcut was published in La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le monde, printed in 1575 in two volumes in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau and Michel Sonnius, with the French text by Francois de Belleforest. It is a French adaptation of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia Universalis; most of Münster's original woodcut maps and drawings were replaced with new woodblocks for this edition. The geographical information primarily draws from Abraham Ortelius and Braun & Hogenberg, alongside other unidentified sources. All maps and views from this Paris edition by Belleforest are particularly rare, as it was a single edition published in only one language, unlike Münster's Basel edition, which saw 46 different editions.