Officially opened in 1682, the Canal du Midi, designed and built by the engineers Pierre-Paul Riquet and Francois Andreossy, stretched from Toulouse to the Mediterranean. The present work was written by Andreossy's descendant, Antoine-Francois Andreossy (1761-1828), a French general and diplomat. A member of the Academie des Sciences, he analyses here the terrain of the south of France to show how and why the canal was built. Notably, the work became known for the author's argument that Riquet had usurped the glory that really belonged to his ancestor. Concluding with original documents from...