Atlas of Madagascar

Summary

This review describes the compilation and first delivery of the Atlas de Madagascar. Conceived in 1964 at the University of Tananarive’s geography laboratory among members of the Association des géographes de Madagascar, the project received funding from CNRS and ORSTOM and was directed by René Battistini, Françoise Le Bourdiec, and Paul Le Bourdiec. Forty contributors included university specialists, agricultural-development engineers, and members of Madagascar’s national geographical institute. The first of two deliveries contains thirty of the planned sixty loose-leaf maps; completion was scheduled for the end of 1970. Seven sections cover physical, human, and rural geography, industrial resources and activities, transport and communications, facilities, and regional synthesis. Commentary, graphs, statistical tables, and standardized notices document sources and compilation methods. Most plates use a scale of 1:4,000,000, with exceptions for town plans and local agricultural landscapes; a transparent reference overlay locates all communes. The reviewer praises the atlas’s scientific rigor and practical design, judging it an accessible working tool and an essential source on a country still little studied.