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Click to enlargeEmpire du Mogol
Pierre Du Val's small map of the Mughal Empire, from his Géographie Universelle. A compact, widely circulated statement of the same French idea — India as the Empire of the Great Mogul — by Sanson's own pupil and kinsman.
Authorship and object
Pierre Du Val (1619–1683), nephew and student of Nicolas Sanson and himself geographer to the king, produced popular small-format works for a broad readership; his Géographie Universelle ran through many editions from 1658. Published in Paris by Du Val and Nicolas Langlois.
A map in miniature
At a small scale (roughly 1:31,000,000) this is a reduced, accessible summary rather than a detailed survey — the Mughal realm pared to its essentials for the general-geography shelf. It carries forward the Sanson house manner: restrained, schematic, organised by polity.
The gaze
Du Val's little map shows how quickly "the Empire of the Great Mogul" had hardened into standard European shorthand for India. By the 1680s the framing was settled enough to be packaged for ordinary readers — India known, at a glance, as one of the world's great empires, drawn from afar and at arm's length.