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Alain Manesson Mallet
Alain Manesson Mallet

Alain Manesson Mallet

French, 1630 - 1706
BiographyAlain Manesson Mallet was a cartographer and military engineer.

Mallet started his career as a musketeer in the army of Louis XIV, rising to the rank of Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. In 1668 his military engineering and mathematical background led to an appointment teaching mathematics at la Petite Écurie.

Mallet is promarily known for his extensive work Description de L'Univers (1683) in five volumes, which contains maps of all parts of the then - known world (both ancient and modern), star maps, prints of the costumes, customs, cities and religions of many nations, and astronomical prints. Mallet also drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book once referred to as "a curious rabble of a thousand things on Geography and History”.

Mallet also published Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes and La Géométrie pratique (1702).
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