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Stock# 108207

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Jacques Nicolas Bellin

Title

Plan de Milazzo dans l'Ile de Sicile.

Publication Place / Date

Paris / 1764

Image Dimensions

6.8 x 8.5 inches

Color

Hand Colored

Condition

Stock# 108207

$245.00

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Description

This 1764 map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, featured in his Petit Atlas Maritime, illustrates the fortified city and promontory of Milazzo on the northern coast of Sicily. The map shows Milazzo's strategic position, with its fortifications, including the prominent Château de Milazzo, and key religious and military landmarks, such as St. Nicolas, la Trinité, and St. Antoine. Bellin provides detailed soundings around the coast to aid navigation in the Mediterranean waters near Milazzo.

The plan includes a decorative cartouche that displays the title and the scale in toises, a French unit of measurement. The surrounding sea areas are marked with depth soundings and navigational hazards, reflecting the map's practical use for naval commanders and traders. Bellin’s work is known for combining both artistic elegance and navigational precision.

Condition Description

Original hand-color. Engraving on 18th-century laid paper. Dampstain in the lower right corner, outside the image.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin Biography

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was among the most important mapmakers of the eighteenth century. In 1721, at only the age of 18, he was appointed Hydrographer to the French Navy. In August 1741, he became the first Ingénieur de la Marine of the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine (the French Hydrographic Office) and was named Official Hydrographer of the French King.

During his term as Official Hydrographer, the Dépôt was the one of the most active centers for the production of sea charts and maps in Europe. Their output included a folio-format sea atlas of France, the Neptune Francois. He also produced a number of sea atlases of the world, including the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise. These gained fame and distinction all over Europe and were republished throughout the eighteenth and even in the nineteenth century.

Bellin also produced smaller format maps such as the 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime, containing 580 finely-detailed charts. He also contributed a number of maps for the 15-volume Histoire Generale des Voyages of Antoine François Prévost.

Bellin set a very high standard of workmanship and accuracy, cementing France's leading role in European cartography and geography during this period. Many of his maps were copied by other mapmakers across the continent.