Historical data visualization · 1869

Charles Joseph Minard: Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813

Charles Joseph Minard

Paris · 20 November 1869

Minard’s 1869 map of the French army in Russia in 1812-1813, its width drawn to scale of the men left.

Poster of “Charles Joseph Minard: Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813”: a large image at the top, the text in three columns below
Shown in the ivorygenesis theme
Print from
A3
License
Public domain (map); notice: MIT
Retrieved
27 September 2026
Language
French
Rights holder
Charles Joseph Minard, 1869

Theme

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Print from A3: the smallest A size at which the body text is at least 8 pt.

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Edition

Scan btv1b52504201x of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (département Cartes et plans, GE DON-4182: two maps on one sheet, 44.5 x 52 cm), as uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (File:Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l’armée française dans la Campagne de Russie 1812-13 (comparées à celle d’Hannibal durant la 2èmee Guerre Punique) - Minard. Régnier & Dourdet - btv1b52504201x.jpg, 8809 x 7612 px). The poster shows the lower map only, cropped to its frame (the map of Hannibal’s march above it, the handwritten dedication and the library marks around the frame are left out), reduced to 4234 px and with its paper tone scaled to white (one gain per channel). The text is transcribed from the scan: the legend under the title, set in two paragraphs as on the map, the heading of the temperature chart and the note at its left. The title, author line and date of the map are in the header. The rule that separates two sentences of the legend is set as a dash; “M.M.” and “zônes” are kept as written; “l’œil” is read with the ligature, which cannot be told from joined script; the title’s “1812~1813” is set with a hyphen. The labels on the map (places, numbers of men, temperatures and dates) are not transcribed. No transcription of the legend was found to compare with: it was read on the scan word by word. The notice below the legend is not a period text: it was written for this poster from the map itself and the Gallica record (Minard’s dates, the printer, the two maps on one sheet).

Rights

Charles Joseph Minard died in 1870 and the map was published in 1869: it is in the public domain in France and in the United States. The Gallica record states “domaine public”; Wikimedia Commons marks the file as public domain.

The notice written for the poster is covered by the MIT license of this repository.

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