The Card Tendre (La Carte de Tendre)

(Click on map to enlarge)
It must be rare when art and science crosses path in the 17th century, as in literature and mapping, or topography. The Card Tendre (or La Carte de Tendre in French) is one such instance. "Tendre" is French for "tense" (verb) and "tender" (adjective). Such opposites, the two different word form.

What you are seeing is a map of an imaginary country called "Tension" (or "Tender"), an allegorical representation of the different stages of a love life (well, I hope I've piqued your interest here.). From the bottom of the map, where "new friendship" is formed, one progresses to "Tension" either through the path of "esteem", "gratitude" or "affection", which are all self-explanatory, I think. Taking the wrong path leads to the " Lake", or "Ocean" of "Indifference" (boredom, that is, for it flows quietly.), the western "Sea of Animosity" (a divorce perhaps, in the modern concept.) or to the "Dangerous Sea" (I am rather baffled here.) in the north, which borders on the "Unknown Realm", the home of the passion. This passion, it seems, is positive if the man processes a noble sentiment.

Another reason I found this interesting, is that a map, like a novel, is imbued with a metaphoric quality: the former, a scale-down representation of land, the latter, a compressed slice of life.

Source

The Map tender was inspired by Madeleine de Scudéry (1607 - 1701)

PS: The "La Carte du Tendre Pays" is mentioned on pg 88 of Michael Ondaatje's "Divisadero".