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Description

Scarce French & Indian War Map of the Chesapeake Region

Detailed map of the Chesapeake, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware (immediately prior to the settlement between Penn and Lord Baltimore, with Delaware properly shown as part of Pennsylvania), and contiguous regions.

The map shows towns, roads, villages, churches, meeting houses, rivers, mountains, inlets, islands and a host of other details. A nice map of the region, issued just prior to the start of the French & Indian War. This is 1 of 3 nearly identical maps of the Chesapeake region by Bellin. The others include the name "Virginie" and "Mari-land" in the title respectively.

The present example comes from the Petit Alas Maritime and is the scarcest of the 3 editions of Bellin's map of the region, each with a different title. While the title is the easiest way to spot the differences, the map appears to be completely engraved, most noticeably the unique topographical depiction of the coastline and river within the land mass, which is changed completely from other editions, where the coastal detail is shown in the water, not on land, a curious stylistic change that gives a three dimensional quality to this edition of the map.

Condition Description
Original color.
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.