This small chart shows the Bay of Portobelo, Panama



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. However, there are some notable
exceptions, such as his famous map of Manhattan, which was sourced from a
manuscript map by J.B.L. Franquelin drawn in 1693. 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.

As one of the major Spanish settlements on the Caribbean
side of central America as well as a port regularly used by Spanish treasure
galleons, Portobelo shows a formidable set of defences. The “Chateau de Fer” or
Iron Castle/Fortress guards the entrance to the Bay on the northeast while the
old town of Portobelo is guarded by the smaller fortifications of “Chateau de St.
Jerosme” or fort of S. Jeronimo and the “Chateau de Gloria” or fort of Santiago
de la Gloria. There were multiple attempts by privateers to capture Spanish
treasure ships so despite the efforts of the Spanish, charts of this region
were available on the market.

Original
colour.