Notice sur l’île d’Elbe: contenant la description de ses villes… augmentée de l’itinéraire du voyage de Buonaparte jusqu’au lieu de son embarquement
A Paris: chez Tardieu-Denesle, 1814
Acton.c.26.1700(7), folding plate opposite title page

This simple yet elegant relief map, engraved in Paris, was probably sold separately to the pamphlet with which it is bound, describing both the island of Elba and the route into exile taken by Napoleon following his abdication in April 1814. As the map shows, Elba is tiny. Set between the Emperor’s native Corsica and the Italian coast, in the Tuscan Archipelago, it is a hilly island, barely fifteen miles in length. The inexpensive map and pamphlet were a commercial response to the desire for news. Parisians wanted to know what had happened to Napoleon, and sought information on the nature of his ‘captivity’.

Learn more about how maps such as this were produced in this video.