The first attempt at a comprehensive bibliography of D'Anville's production of maps and books.

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782) was arguably the greatest French cartographer of the eighteenth century. Geographer to the kings of France, he was the author of more than two hundred maps and plans. His maps of China, drawn at the request of the Jesuits for Father du Halde's history, after the reports of their missionaries, would be the most accurate depictions of the Empire until well into the nineteenth century. According to the preface of this work, Bougainville, in his journey across the Pacific, found D'Anville's charts the most accurate of any he could find.

This cartobibliography was compiled by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage (1760-1825), and Louis-Charles-Joseph de Manne (1773-1832).

Bocage was the only student that d'Anville took on during his lifetime. In 1792, he was briefly put in charge of the geographical department of the King's Library (that would later become the Bibliotheque Nationale), before being driven out by the Terror. He later held various geographical posts in the French administration, became Dean of the Sorbonne, and was one of the founding members of the 'Société de géographie'.

De Manne who knew d'Anville well in his early years, inherited all the great cartographer's manuscripts, maps and engravings following his death in 1782. Although De Manne would become the first employee of the newly formed Bibliothque Nationale, and would go on to become the head of the department of print books in 1820, one of his great enduring passions was the work of d'Anville. The first edition of his bibliography, the present work, was published in 1802. De Manne would continue to edit and revise his work on d'Anville up until his death in 1832. A second edition, in two volumes, was published posthumously in 1834.