TURGOT (Michel Etienne). Plan of Paris begun in the year 1734, drawn and engraved, under the orders of messire Michel Etienne Turgot [...] provost of the merchants... Completed to engrave in 1739. Surveyed and drawn by Louis Bretez. Engraved by Claude Lucas. Paris, sn, 1734-1739. In-folio (55,5 x 45 cm), brown marbled calf with gilt coat of arms of the city of Paris in the centre of the boards, spine decorated with fleur-de-lys, large frame of palmettes, fleur-de-lys and gilt fillets, gilt fleur-de-lys in spandrels (period binding). 20 double engraved plates (2 of which are enclosed). Without the double-page engraved assembly plan. Binding very damaged, first cover detached, leather missing, soiling and spotting. Engravings in good condition and of a good edition, small reddish stain in the middle of plan 9, a few small marginal tears without gravity, light reddish band at the central folds of some plates, the assembled plate 18-19 is detached and slightly browned. In 1734, Michel Etienne Turgot, then provost of the merchants of the Parisian municipality, decided to promote the magnificence of the city of Paris by having a new plan of the city and its suburbs made. For this purpose, he called upon Louis Bretez, a member of the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture and a professor of perspective. For two years, Bretez made very precise surveys on the ground, and was even allowed to enter each house, each garden and each private mansion. In 1736, Claude Lucas, an engraver at the Academy of Sciences, was commissioned to engrave the 21 plates of the so-called "Turgot" plan with etching and burin. The latter was not published until 1739 and was offered to the King, the members of the Academy, the Municipality and also to French representations abroad.