A small volume of essays on food, food culture and related topics, illustrated by a charming gastronomic map of France.

The Nouval almanach des gourmands provides a great deal of practical information on food and the acquisition thereof, ranging from advice on the proper sequence of courses to be served at table to curated lists of restaurants of food vendors to a long discourse on the use of truffles. The title and pseudonymous author of the Nouvel Almanach are a nod to a work of similar title edited and published from 1803 to 1812 by Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, remembered today as the first food journalist.

The map is based closely on one in Cadet de Gassicourt’s Cours Gastronomique of 1806. “Less a geography lesson than a testament to the depth and variety of French food and wine” (Mode), the map uses hundreds of tiny pictorial vignettes of cheeses, livestock, barrels and bottles, roasts and sausage links, and the like to depict the country’s staggering culinary wealth. The large cartouche at upper left depicts a Perigord pie (a meat pie strongly flavored by whole truffles), a visual pun on the pseudonymous author.

References
OCLC #16854097 et al, listing numerous institutional holdings. Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection, #1033 describes the 1806 edition of the map.