On display is the Ferraris Atlas reproduced in a book measuring 40 x 50 centimetres and weighing 11 kilograms.

The 608-page tome, published with the support of the Flemish authorities, gives an 18th-century view of Belgium in the form of 1:20,000 double-page maps and an informative introduction in Dutch and in French. You can even buy your own; it comes with a handle on the side for "easy" carrying.

In 1777, director-general of the artillery, Joseph-Jean de Ferraris completed the mapping of the then Dutch Netherlands. As head of the military school of mathematics in Mechelen, he set his students to work triangulating the country from the French border to the bishopric of Liège.

Ferraris had persuaded his masters that they needed a detailed military atlas to properly control the Dutch Netherlands. The detail of the original is astonishing. It is twice as large as the reproduction now on sale: 1:11,520, or "une pouce de France pour 160 toises" - one French inch for 160 toises, which is about six feet.

The original is made up of 275 hand-drawn coloured sheets and measures 30 x 22 metres. Three originals were made. One was intended for the Austrian emperor but ended up via Ferraris' daughter in the possession of the Dutch king, Willem I, and is today kept in the National Archive in The Hague. The second copy was delivered to the court chancellery in Vienna and forms part of the Austrian Kriegsarchiv, or War Archive; the third copy, which was made for Charles of Lorraine, Ferraris' protector, was removed to Vienna when the Austrians abandoned the country in 1794.

Smaller copies were sold for private use to recoup some of the costs, but by the end of the 18th century, the three originals had been moved to foreign capitals. One of the smaller commercial atlases was used by Napoleon, and we can speculate whether Wellington had his own copy at the battle of Waterloo.

The commercial atlas was reprinted at the birth of Belgium in 1831 and, as the present frontiers were not fixed until 1839, contained Dutch Limburg and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

It was not until 1919 that Belgium had the opportunity to regain one of the original three atlases. Following the First World War, Austria was subject to claims for war reparations, and one of the demands of Belgium was the return of Charles of Lorraine's atlas. Today it holds pride of place in the Royal Belgian Library, and it is this original which was used to produce the present publication.

If you turn to the page where you now live, you will probably find fields. The most urban of names are shown in 1777 as hamlets among lanes and forests. The maps were drawn for an army to use, and you get the feeling of hanging over the edge of a hot-air balloon basket as you look down on to the green fields below. Of course, churches and castles are depicted, as are high roads and sunken lanes.

There you can see hedges and orchards, windmills both wooden and of stone and the defensive walls around farms. If you look carefully, you can find gallows, sites of skirmishes and even archery practice poles. And for such a bucolic age, you can get the feel of the origins of the industrial explosion of the 19th century in villages with small mines and steel works.

If you have a big enough coffee table, the Ferraris Atlas is a must.

De Grote Atlas van Ferraris is available from Lannoo Publishers for a reduced price of €129. The prices rises to €150 in July.

www.lannoo.be