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This map, titled Plan de la Ville Forts et Port d'Alger from Jacques-Nicolas Bellin's 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime, provides a detailed view of the city, fortifications, and port of Algiers, situated along the Mediterranean coast.
The map displays Algiers’ fortified harbor, which is protected by the Bastion des Anglais and several smaller fortifications, and highlights the strategic importance of this port in the Mediterranean. Bellin’s map employs precise line work and includes labels for key areas, fortifications, and streets, capturing the urban layout, defensive structures, and surrounding agricultural lands.
The decorative cartouche in the upper right corner adds an artistic element, framing the map's title and scale in a rococo style, typical of 18th-century French cartographic design. Coastal soundings and depth markings further emphasize the map’s navigational intent, as Bellin’s atlases often served to guide French naval and merchant vessels.
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.
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