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A Great Lakes Rarity
Excellent example of this seminal map of the Great Lakes, by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, which completely re-wrote the cartographic treatment of the region.
Bellin's mapping of the Great Lakes is one of the cartographic landmarks of the region. Over the course of a decade, he produced 3 maps of the region which updated and transformed the cartography of the region.
Bellin's first map of the Great Lakes (Carte des lacs du Canada . . . ) was issued in 1744 in French Jesuit Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix’s 1744 journal of his voyage through French North America and thereafter incorporated into his 1745 map, Partie Occidentale De La Nouvelle France ou Canada. . . The 1745 Bellin map repeated the cartographic information of the 1744 Charlevoix map, but covered a wider geographical region, with extended coverage primarily to the south and the west. This map was later copied by the Homann Heirs in Nuremberg.
In 1755, on the even of the French & Indian War, Bellin issued this substantially revised map, which can be distinguished from the earlier Bellin maps in a number of ways, including:
- The Ohio River is completely reworked and shown flowing to the Wabash, with far more topographical detail and place names given.
- The shapes and sizes of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario have been significantly altered and reduced.
- The eastern coast of Lake Huron is completely revised.
- Fort Detroit is added and the River between Lake Erie and Lake Huron completely redone.
- The details along the Mississippi River south of the confluence of the Illinois are completely redone, with many additional placenames.
- The entire depiction of the Allegheny Mountains the regions to the east are redone.
The map summarizes the knowledge of the region as the French knew it toward the end of their occupation. It shows the river systems known to the French explorers, locates French forts and settlements and identifies Indian Villages. The map also incorporates some of the work of Sieur de La Verendrye, the last of the great French explorers in America.
Rarity
Both the 1745 and 1755 editions of the Bellin map are rare on the market. We last offered the 1755 map in 2016.
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.
