The first complete geological map of France (including Corsica), on a scale of 1:500.000, complete with accompanying geological and paleontological text and atlas volumes.

Inspired by Greenough's recently-published Geological map of England and Wales, and acting on the royal decree of 1816, André Brochant de Villiers (1772-1840), Professor at the École des Mines de Paris, began work on an equivalent geological map of France. Two young mining engineers were assigned to him, Armand Dufrénoy (1792-1857) and Léonce Elie de Beaumont (1798-1874), who began by training in England, grasping the principles of Greenough. At that time, the geological constitution of France was indeed poorly understood, and the general features were barely outlined. Upon their return in 1825, geological exploration began, with Élie de Beaumont examining the eastern part of France and Dufrénoy the western part. 80,000 km were covered over almost fifteen years, and the engraving of the map's relief was finally completed in 1840. These geological explorations prompted the writing of numerous descriptive papers. Dufrénoy and Élie de Beaumont published them in the 'Annales des Mines', before compiling them into the 'Mémoires pour servir à une description géologique de la France', whose four volumes were published from 1830 to 1838. A new series, ours, titled 'Explication de la carte géologique de la France', began to appear in 1841:

"Its publication exerted a powerful influence on the whole development of geology in France and secured for the two authors a distinguished place..." (Zittel).

"Cet achèvement était aussi le couronnement posthume de près d'une vingtaine d'années d'engagement d'André Brochant de Villiers, disparu l'année précédente, pour concevoir le projet et en superviser pas à pas la réalisation, si bien que cette carte, considérée le plus souvent comme la carte de Dufrénoy et Élie de Beaumont, qui en furent les artisans émérites, mériterait de porter le nom de leur maître qui en fut le concepteur et l'architecte."

(This completion was also the posthumous crowning of nearly twenty years of commitment by André Brochant de Villiers, who passed away the previous year, to conceive the project and supervise its step-by-step realisation, so much so that this map, most often considered the map of Dufrénoy and Élie de Beaumont, who were its eminent craftsmen, deserves to bear the name of their master who was its designer and architect.) (Gaudant).

Volume III is by Dufrenoy alone; the zoological atlas is by Bayle, and includes plates dealing with molluscs (mainly secondary - Mesozoic - ammonites and bivalves; some belemnites and gastropods, as well as several brachiopods and echinoderms); the botanical volume IV (seconde partie) is by Zeiller, with plates (bound in the rear of the second atlas) depicting fossil plants, principally from Carboniferous deposits. The Bayle and Zeiller Atlases are often lacking and thus very rare. The second part of the third volume ("Tome 3, deuxième partie") was never published. Some regard Bayle' s atlas as part 2, but there is no indication of this in this work. Also, the Tome 4, première partie remained unpublished, but similarly, Tome 4' s atlas is sometimes regarded as such. In any event, the present set contains all that was published.