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Description

Old color example of this detailed map of America, published by Nicolas Bellin, Hydrographer to the King and the leading French map maker of the mid-18th Century., which appeared in Bellin's Petit Atlas Maritime.

Striking map of America, exhibiting contemporary discoveries throughout. Excellent Northwest Coast of America including discoverers notes. The Mississippi and Missouri are searching to the west for sources Odd Gulf Coast and Florida projection. Baja California is based upon Consag. South America has assumed a slimmer shape, but is still barely known in the interior.

Extensive annotations. Decorative compass rose.

Condition Description
Minor foxing.
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.