Jacques-Nicolas Bellin
The Course of the Amazon, 1764
8 ½ x 18 in
21.6 x 46 cm
21.6 x 46 cm
SAM3572
Guyane Portugaise Unusual map of the course of the Amazon according to 18th century explorers. This was a period when the Amazon was accepted as the longest river on...
Guyane Portugaise
Unusual map of the course of the Amazon according to 18th century explorers. This was a period when the Amazon was accepted as the longest river on earth.
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin was one of the greatest 18th century map makers. He specialised in hydrography and was appointed to the French Hydrographic office at the young age of 18 in 1721. Twenty years later he was named the first “Ingenieur de la Marine” for the “Depot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine” as well as Hydrographer to Louis XV of France. Over a fifty year career, he published a multitude of important maps often from first hand sources provided by naval officers, merchants and government sources. His level of access was extraordinary. As well as publishing his own atlases, he was a contributor to many seminal French works on exploration, including Abbee Raynal’s “Histoire des Deux Indes”, Abbee Prevost’s “Histoire Generale des Voyages” and Pierre de Charlevoix’s “Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France”.
In 1762, Bellin decided to publish one of his most popular and accessible works: “Le Petit Atlas Maritime”. The work came out in 1764 in five volumes and proved extremely popular. Many of the maps were reduced versions which Bellin had either contributed or published previously. The five volumes usually contain between 575 and 590 maps with variations noted between individual examples. As the preparation took only two years, it is very likely that Bellin had a majority of these copper plates already available. The initial financial support for the atlas was from Etienne-Francois, Duc de Choiseul, a highly placed French politician who was credited for strengthening both the army and navy. Due to its accessibility, he perceived the ”Petit Atlas Maritime” as a method of publicising both the work of the “Depot de la Marine” and the Navy to the general public. Bellin includes a long dedication to Choiseul on the front of each volume.
For collectors today, the work presents one of the widest selection of extremely desirable smaller maps. They provide clear, concise and attractive geographical records of some of the most inaccessible and exotic areas of the world in the mid-18th century. Bellin was part of a group called “Les Philosophes”, the French counterpart to the pioneers of the English Age of Reason and his maps are a lasting legacy from the Age of French Enlightenment.
Bellin had produced a map of the course of the River Amazon previously, for the multi volume geo-historical encyclopaedia “Histoire Generale des Voyages” edited by the Abbee Prevost. That map was based on the manuscripts of the noted French explorer Charles Marie de la Condamine. This map is usually dated 1743-4.
This map is an upgrade and based on a new survey. Its information is based on the Portuguese Boundary Commission sent by the Portuguese Crown into the Amazon in 1753 to determine Spanish and Portuguese boundaries. The Commission mainly consisted of army officers, but the main cartographer was the noted Jesuit Ignatius Szentmártonyi of Croatia. In 1755, he published the first scientific map of the region which was used as the main source for Bellin’s map in his later Petit Atlas Maritime. It was the most accurate map of the region at this time. Original colour. [SAM3572]
Unusual map of the course of the Amazon according to 18th century explorers. This was a period when the Amazon was accepted as the longest river on earth.
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin was one of the greatest 18th century map makers. He specialised in hydrography and was appointed to the French Hydrographic office at the young age of 18 in 1721. Twenty years later he was named the first “Ingenieur de la Marine” for the “Depot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine” as well as Hydrographer to Louis XV of France. Over a fifty year career, he published a multitude of important maps often from first hand sources provided by naval officers, merchants and government sources. His level of access was extraordinary. As well as publishing his own atlases, he was a contributor to many seminal French works on exploration, including Abbee Raynal’s “Histoire des Deux Indes”, Abbee Prevost’s “Histoire Generale des Voyages” and Pierre de Charlevoix’s “Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France”.
In 1762, Bellin decided to publish one of his most popular and accessible works: “Le Petit Atlas Maritime”. The work came out in 1764 in five volumes and proved extremely popular. Many of the maps were reduced versions which Bellin had either contributed or published previously. The five volumes usually contain between 575 and 590 maps with variations noted between individual examples. As the preparation took only two years, it is very likely that Bellin had a majority of these copper plates already available. The initial financial support for the atlas was from Etienne-Francois, Duc de Choiseul, a highly placed French politician who was credited for strengthening both the army and navy. Due to its accessibility, he perceived the ”Petit Atlas Maritime” as a method of publicising both the work of the “Depot de la Marine” and the Navy to the general public. Bellin includes a long dedication to Choiseul on the front of each volume.
For collectors today, the work presents one of the widest selection of extremely desirable smaller maps. They provide clear, concise and attractive geographical records of some of the most inaccessible and exotic areas of the world in the mid-18th century. Bellin was part of a group called “Les Philosophes”, the French counterpart to the pioneers of the English Age of Reason and his maps are a lasting legacy from the Age of French Enlightenment.
Bellin had produced a map of the course of the River Amazon previously, for the multi volume geo-historical encyclopaedia “Histoire Generale des Voyages” edited by the Abbee Prevost. That map was based on the manuscripts of the noted French explorer Charles Marie de la Condamine. This map is usually dated 1743-4.
This map is an upgrade and based on a new survey. Its information is based on the Portuguese Boundary Commission sent by the Portuguese Crown into the Amazon in 1753 to determine Spanish and Portuguese boundaries. The Commission mainly consisted of army officers, but the main cartographer was the noted Jesuit Ignatius Szentmártonyi of Croatia. In 1755, he published the first scientific map of the region which was used as the main source for Bellin’s map in his later Petit Atlas Maritime. It was the most accurate map of the region at this time. Original colour. [SAM3572]
