[MAP] Bellin, 1748 World Map, Contenant Les Parties Connuees du Globe Terrestre

Bellin, Nicolas. [MAP] Essay d'une Carte reduite Contenant Les Parties Connuees du Globe Terrestre Dedie a M le Comte de Maurepas, Commandeur des Odres du Roy, Ministre et Secretaire d'Etat. Paris: 1748. [11960]

Large map, black & white engraving as issued, unbacked with folds evident, in a wooden glass-front modern frame. The frame measures 22.25 x 31 inches; the map is 20.75 x 29 inches, including the visible portion of the margins. The plate lines are clearly visible - this is an original antique map, sometime folded and removed from a volume. This comes to us already framed, and ready to hang on your wall. Very good. Map.

An incredible, detailed map showing the geographical knowledge of the times.

Some of the interesting aspects of this rare map include a river extending from the Great Lakes of America to the Pacific Ocean; several mountains and rivers appear in the central and western area of North America, but it is almost completely unknown; included in the central area of North America is the country of Quivira, which refers to the Seven Cities of Gold sought by the Spanish explorer Coronado; there is no northern border of present-day Canada - it is left blank; a river or channel cuts Patagonia off from the rest of South America; there is speculation regarding the placement and names of Pacific islands.

First published in 1748, this French-language map is a later state showing discoveries by Cook of the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, with pagination information in the bottom margins. This map was probably printed in the 1780s, although it still bears the date of 1748.

It was included in Histoire generale des Voyages, by Abbe Antoine Francois Prevost.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772), one of the most important map-makers of the eighteenth century. As a young man of 18, he was appointed Hydrographer to the French navy, and twenty years later he was made Official Hydrographer, or map-maker to the French throne.

"Bellin set a very high standard of workmanship and accuracy thus gaining for France a leading role in European cartography and geography. Many of his maps were copied by other mapmakers of Europe." - wikipedia.