NOUVELLE CARTE DE LA MER PACIFIC OU MER DU SUD
£250
Attractive and rare map drawn specially for Prevost's Histoire Generale des Voyages.
A very unusual map that despite the title depicts the Pacific coastline from Acapulco to Tierra del Fuego and the Galapagos Islands. The southern part is disembodied and placed into the middle of the map in a partial inset and a smaller inset shows the Bay of St. Francois near Cape Horn. It is decorated with two cartouches and compass roses and crossed with a web of rhumb lines.
Excellent hand colour
Very good condition
code : M4679
Cartographer : Jacques-Nicolas BELLIN
Date : 1750 Paris
Size : 33*53 cms
availability : Available
Price : £250
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was one of the most important and prolific French cartographers of the mid-eighteenth century, in the service of the French Hydrographical Office. He was appointed the first Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine, and also Official Hydrographer to the French King.
Bellin was responsible for an enormous output of charts and maps. In a large folio format, he issued a volume of sea-charts of France, the Neptune Francois, and several sea-atlases of the World, including the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise. These large charts were amongst the best of the period and continued being reissued throughout the second half of the eighteenth century.
In smaller format, he issued the Petit Atlas Maritime (1764),which contained 580 detailed charts, as well as maps to illustrate l'Abbe Prevost's Histoire Generale des Voyages (1746-1757). Bellin also produced a substantial number of important separately issued maps, particularly reflecting continuing discoveries and political events in the Americas.
