Collioure, 1642

PLAN / DE LA VILLE ET CHASTEAV DE / COLLIOVRE / ASSIEGEZ / Par lArmée du Roy Commandée par Monsieur le Mareschal / de la Melleraye grand Maistre de l’Artillerye de France le 15 / jour de Mars 1642 et rendüe à l’obeissance...

723011 is incomplete, showing only two of three elements of  the whole image  which was printed from four copperplates. The three elements are, from top to bottom: 1) The first version of the view, without most of the military details. 2) The title and imprint which, so far as is known, exists in just one state (although varied by MS additions). 3) The second version of the view showing the siege. The order of the mounting has been surmised from the presence of thin engraved neatlines (compared with the thick outer border lines) at the top of the K.Mil. example (see below) and at the bottom of the title and imprint plates in the BnF examples (see below), indicating the lines along which the  impressions from the copperplates would be trimmed and pasted together.

The title was engraved on one plate and the imprint was engraved on another plate. Above the title, and on the same plate, was engraved the west half of the first version of the view of Collioure. Above the imprint, and on the same plate, was engraved the first version of the east half of the view. An impression from each of these two plates, showing platemarks, is seen in the BnF examples. The impressions are marked in pencil, top right with the call mark Ge D 12960 (1) and 12960 (2). This first version shows the buildings of the town of Collioure in three-dimensional aspect.

An example of joined impressions from these two plates (title, imprint and first state of view) is at BnF, RESERVE FT6-QB-201 (172)). The title has been altered in manuscript in three places:1) the first date, ‘le 15 jour de Mars’, has been altered to ‘le 17 jour de Mars’; 2) the blank space for the date on which the town surrendered has been filled in with ’13.e’; 3) the date of ’15. Avril’ has been changed to ’17. Avril’.

An example of the joined impressions of the first version of the view, taken from two copperplates but lacking the title and imprint, is at BL K.Top.84.102.a (this also appears to have been a Dal Pozzo item).

An example of the second version of the view on two sheets pasted together, with the title and imprint pasted above it, is K.Mil 723011. An example of an impression from each of the two plates, with platemarks, of the second version of the view, with no title or imprint, is at BnF. The impressions are marked in pencil, top right with the call mark Ge D 12960 (3) and 12960 (4). The second state of the view shows the town in plan together with the surrounding siegeworks and camps.

It is possible that K.Top.84.102.a and 723011 were once pasted together but became separated at the time George III’s librarian was reorganising the collections at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first version of the view, which was mainly topographical rather than of the military event, may have been cut off and placed in the King’s Topographical Collection, while the second version of the view, containing the military details, was retained together with the title for the King’s Military Collection.