France was leading at the turn of the seventeenth century in the field of geographical and astronomical science, a fact in part due to the generous subsidy allowed by royalty. Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726), perhaps the greatest among the reformers active in these years in improving the methods of map construction, was a native of Paris, in which city he passed practically his entire life.[118] The father, Claude Delisle, famous as a teacher of history and geography, inspired in his son a particular love for the latter subject, or perhaps this may the better be referred to as a love for historical geography. The period was one in which there was much emphasis placed upon the relationship existing between the two branches of study, and it is interesting to note that this phase of geographical study is again coming into favor.[119] Doubtless it was in part the influence of Cassini’s teaching which found expression in Delisle’s lifelong efforts to eliminate the numerous errors which he had found existing in the maps of his day, efforts which even in his early life won for him distinction as a map maker. In the year 1700, when he was but twenty-five years of age, there appeared under his name a world map and likewise maps of the several continents.[120] In these there was exhibited much originality, they being constructed in the main on the basis of astronomical observations which had been made at the Royal [Illustration: Fig. 118a. Terrestrial Globe of Johann Ludovicus Andreae, 1717.]