Map of the Canal de Languedoc, connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, Dedicated...

LE CANAL ROYAL DE LANGUEDOC : Pour la Ionction de L'OCEAN et de la MER MEDITERRANÉE Dediée et Presentée à M.GRS des ESTATS de LANGUEDOC The Canal de Languedoc (1662-1681) –renamed Canal du Midi in 1789- connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean through the Garonne River. It was a major engineering enterprise that became a triumph of French technology and an object of national pride. The canal was proposed by the entrepreneur Pierre-Paul Riquet to the minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and designed with collaboration from both local countrymen and the best military engineers in the country. Jean-Baptiste Nolin’s map, held in the King's Topographical Collection, shows that the construction of the canal required the support of the local nobility, whose coats of arms appear alongside its borders linked by a ribbon to the portrait of Louis XIV. Insets showing the main details of the engineering works, such as aqueducts, locks, and basins, as well as small maps of the mouth of the Garonne and the port of Sète are arranged as a frame.