Cartographic Wonders
The Carte de Tendre
A map of the country of love.
- Map
- Carte de Tendre
- Mapmaker
- Madeleine de Scudéry; engraved by François Chauveau
- Date
- 1654
- Held by
- From the novel Clélie
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and explore.
Size
$29.00
The story
The only map here of a country that never existed. In 1654, in Madeleine de Scudéry's Paris salon, the wits charted the geography of love itself: the River of Inclination winding past the villages of Tender Notes and Pretty Verses, the treacherous Lake of Indifference, the Dangerous Sea lying beyond. To cross it well was to court well. Engraved for her novel Clélie, the Carte de Tendre is cartography turned entirely to feeling — the most romantic map ever printed, and a love letter disguised as a chart.
About this reproduction
- A faithful reproduction of a public-domain map held by From the novel Clélie — the work is centuries out of copyright.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper or 400gsm canvas; framed pieces sit behind acrylic.
- Color-managed to the source scan; we correct nothing and invent nothing.
- Ships in 5–10 business days, rolled in a heavy-wall tube (framed and linen-backed pieces ship flat-packed).
- If it arrives less than perfect, we reprint or refund — your choice.
Why our maps cost more than a poster: we print from the highest-resolution scans in existence, at sizes where the engraving itself becomes visible — the sea monsters, the tiny place-names, the burin lines — on matte paper that holds every line without glare.
