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This small copper-engraved map of Bali was drawn in the mid-1700s by the French cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772). Bellin spent more than 50 years with France’s Hydrographic Service and became its first chief hydrographer.
The map outlines Bali’s coastline, shows a few interior mountains, and names main towns, bays, and capes. Bellin relied on earlier Dutch charts—especially the 1595-97 survey made by Willem Lodewijcksz during Cornelis de Houtman’s first Dutch voyage to the East Indies. Those data were later re-engraved by Theodor de Bry in his Petits Voyages, and Bellin updated them for an 18th-century audience.
Two insets sit at the lower edge: the larger one is a ground plan titled “Plan d’un Palais du Roi,” showing the walls, gates, and inner courts of a Balinese royal compound; the smaller inset gives the island’s location within the East Indies. To keep both insets upright, Bellin rotated the main map so that north points toward the bottom of the sheet. A neat title cartouche and a simple scale bar complete the design.
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.
