The Ports of Southern France
Marseilles
In 1660, Louis XIV ensured Marseilles would become the premier commercial port of France in the Mediterranean, and it would soon surpass Genoa to become the most important port in the western Mediterranean. Significant new fortifications were commissioned by Louis, who famously said, “We noticed that the inhabitants of Marseilles were extremely fond of nice fortresses. We wanted to have our own at the entrance to this great port.” A new armory doubled the naval force capacity of the port, while the General Hospital of Galley Slaves would expand soon after this map was printed.
The ancient city is distinguished by its organic cadaster. It is bounded to the east and south by 17th and early 18th century classical, regularly-laid extensions. The urban-rural divide is very sharp, and large ecclesiastical estates lie beyond the walls.
The expansion of commercial and naval operations made Marseilles an important entrepôt for the Congregation of the Mission. Frequently mentioned in Vincent de Paul’s correspondence, Marseilles also features prominently in his biography: it is associated with the lore of his captivity in Tunis, and it is notably connected to his evangelizing among the Royal galley slaves.
Nicolas de Fer’s work is closely identified with the reign of Louis XIV and the ascendancy of France as an early modern state. Seen in this map is one of France’s major cities in the throes of such a transformation.
Toulon
As with Marseilles, Toulon was immeasurably valuable to the French navy, and a key asset in France’s Mediterranean strategy. Military and naval functions dominated the form of the city. A new port protected by extended docks and a chain complemented the old port of galleys. Massive new ships required a much larger port and arsenal.
This military map is rich in topographical details and depicts the 1707 siege of the port city of Toulon during the War of the Spanish Succession. The unsuccessful siege was staged by the combined imperial forces of the Duke of Savoy and the British fleet under the command of Admiral, Sir Cloudesley Shovell. King Louis XIV’s and allied Spanish forces were on the defense.
The cartographer employs both planned and bird’s-eye-view visualizations of elevation in the city’s hinterland. Straight lines depict the sightlines of cannon and mortar barrages. The city is splendidly fortified with vast earthen, polygonal fortifications and secondary forts, commissioned by Louis XIV’s Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and designed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in 1660.
Marseilles and Toulon as Microcosms of Christian-Muslim Relations
At the time of Vincent's birth in 1581, the region of Provence had been part of France for about a century. In 1524, Francis I had transformed the Provençal port city of Toulon into a heavily armed royal port, but the fort's commander sold it to France's rival to the east, the Holy Roman Empire. In retaliation, Francis formed a surprising alliance with the Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had embarked on a campaign to dominate the Mediterranean, found it “convenient” to occupy Toulon and Nice on behalf of France, having already extended his rule to Algiers. Nearby Marseilles was the home of the Franco-Turkish fleet during much of the alliance. Catholic France's diplomatic union with the Muslim Ottoman Empire lasted for two and half centuries, distressing many European Christians. Yet this political reality is part of the backdrop to the world of Barbary Muslim corsairs and Christian captives that figure in Vincent's personal narrative, and the missionary activities of his community.
Herman Moll (1654-1732) was a highly respected British cartographer, though his System of Geography precedes his spectacular large-format, full-color map collections. A single monochrome map appears at the beginning of each section. Of particular interest are the introductory chapters, which lay out the concepts and categories for the study of geography.
Charting the French Mediterranean Coast
This portolan (or marine atlas) chart includes the coasts of important French provinces of Provence and Languedoc, and key port cities like Marseilles (Marsilia), Toulon, and Narbonne, where Vincent supposedly set off on his ill-fated voyage.
Predating the development of the marine chronometer by John Harrison, which proved to be a fail-proof technology for the calculation of longitude, portolan charts were important navigation aids by recording compass directions and distance estimates as these were observed by mariners. Every captain’s study would have a complement of such sea charts, likely full of manuscript annotations and perchance corrections.
This chart is contained in a portolan entitled Prima Parte dello Specchio del Mare, one of the earliest printed Italian portolans. It is a compendium of coastal profiles, plans of harbours and maritime maps of the Mediterranean Sea. Venetian master cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli adapted these engravings in his own 1696 maritime atlas under the title Isolario.