Jacques Nicholas Bellin (1703 - 1772)

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A French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes.
Bellin was born in Paris. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50-year career, he produced a large number of maps of particular interest to the Ministère de la Marine. His maps of Canada and of French territories in North America (New France, Acadia, Louisiana) are particularly valuable. He died at Versailles.
In 1721, at age 18, he was appointed hydrographer (chief cartographer) to the French Navy. In August 1741, he became the first Ingénieur de la Marine of the Depot des cartes et plans de la Marine (the French Hydrographical Office) and was named Official Hydrographer of the French King.

During his reign the Depot came out with prodigious amount of charts and maps among which was a large folio format sea-charts of France, the Neptune Francois. He also produced a number of sea-atlases of the world, e.g., the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise. These gained fame, distinction and respect all over Europe and were republished throughout the 18th and even in the succeeding century.
Bellin also came out with smaller format maps such as the 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime (5 vols.) containing 580 finely detailed charts.

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
He was one of the Encyclopédistes, a group of 18th century intellectuals in France who compiled the 35-volume Encyclopédie which was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Bellin contributed 994 articles.

The Encyclopédistes, were part of the group called philosophes among whose members were the great minds of the Age of Enlightenment, e.g., Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Baron d'Holbach.

Bellin contributed a number of maps to 15-vol. Histoire Generale des Voyages of Antoine François Prévost or simply known l'Abbe Prevost. One of these maps led to a geographical blunder whose impact reverberates to this day. This was the map of the Philippines which Bellin copied from a world-famous chart produced in 1734 by the Spanish missionary to the Philippines, Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde.

Unlike many other European mapmakers of the time who outright appropriated Murillo's map, Bellin had the intellectual integrity to fully credit Murillo as his source, an open acknowledgement shown in the title cartouche of Bellin's map which came out the same year as the original work by Murillo.

Shown in Bellin's map was an island named "Limasava", a word invented in 1667 by Spanish friar, Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., to refer to the way station of the Armada de Molucca under the command of the Portuguese captain-general Fernao de Magalhaes during its navigation in Philippine waters. Combés, who had not read a single eyewitness account of the Magellan expedition relied on two sources, the hopelessly garbled Italian translation of the Antonio Pigafetta account by Giovanni Battista Ramusio and the secondhand account by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas. Ramusio wrote the fleet anchored in March–April 1521 in Butuan in Mindanao, and from there sailed for Cebu with a brief stopover at "Messana". In the authentic Pigafetta account, the port was an isle named Mazzaua while the stopover isle was named Gatighan. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas gave a faithful narration of the Mazzaua anchorage.

Combés disregarded de Herrera's version and adopted Ramusio's. He wrote that Magellan's fleet had anchored at Butuan and from their sailed for Cebu making a stop at a way station he named Limasaua.

Five years earlier than Combés, Fr. Francisco Colín wrote the Armada moored at Butuan from March–April 1521 where Magellan and his men together with the natives celebrated an Easter Sunday mass on 31 March 1521. From Butuan the fleet sailed for Cebu making a brief stop at a way station he called "Dimasaua", an invented word meaning "this is not the Mazagua of Antonio de Herrera where supposedly an Easter Sunday mass was held which I already said happened in Butuan."

This episode was projected in the 1734 map made by Murillo who used Combés name, "Limassava" not "Dimasaua" which map Bellin copied

In 1789, Augustinian Carlo Amoretti, Italian Encyclopedist and librarian of Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, discovered the authentic Italian manuscript of Antonio Pigafetta among the scattered holdings of the library. Here it came out that the port of March–April 1521 was not Butuan but Mazaua. Amoretti, who himself had not read any of five eyewitness reports of the incident including two French versions of Pigafetta's account, asserted in a footnote that Mazaua was probably the isle named Limasava in Bellin's map, thus interchanging the real port of Mazaua with the way station Gatighan.
Largely with the appearance of the eyewitness account of Ginés de Mafra, the only seaman in Magellan's fleet to return to Mazaua, whose testimony reveals a concrete, measurable description of Mazaua, the skein starting from the garbled version of Pigafetta by Ramusio to the mishandling by Combés to Bellin and finally to Amoretti has been unraveled: Pigafetta's Gatighan is Bellin's Limasava.

Published Works:

  • Hydrographie française (1753)
  • Carte de l'Amérique septentrionale (Map of Northern America) (1755)
  • Le petit Atlas François. Recueil de Cartes et Plans des quatre parties du Monde (1758)
  • Petit Atlas Maritime (1764)
  • Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la géographie (1769) 

Jacques Nicholas Bellin (3)

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1753 Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand - Carte Reduite.....Australes

1753 Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand - Carte Reduite.....Australes

  • Title : Carte Reduite des Terres Australes pour Servir a l'Histoire des Voyages...1753
  • Ref #:  17027
  • Size: 13 1/2in x 10in (340mm x 255mm)
  • Date : 1753
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This original copper plate engraved antique map of Australia - one of the earliest, near complete maps, dedicated to the Island Continent - was engraved in 1753 by Jacques Nicolas Bellin  - date engraved in the title -and was published in Antoine Prevosts Histoire Generale Des Voyages.

Background: This is one of the few 18th century maps to focus on the Australian continent prior to Cook's famous first voyage from 1768-1771. Mainland Australia is connected to both Tasmania (Terre de Van Diemen) and Papua New Guinea (Nouv. Guinee). Along the imaginary eastern coastline is a note that reads: "I suppose that the land of Diemen can join with the land of the Holy Ghost, but this is without proof." A partial coastline of New Zealand is shown peeking out of the corner of the map, with a note that it was discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642 and speculation that it might be part of a great southern continent. This is an important map of Australia depicting the interesting theories made prior to exploration of the region later in the 18th century. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - 
Colors used: - 
General color appearance: - 
Paper size: - 13 1/2in x 10in (340mm x 255mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 8 1/2in (295mm x 215mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None

$1,450.00 USD
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1753 Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand - Carte Reduite.....Australes

1753 Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand - Carte Reduite.....Australes

  • Title : Carte Reduite des Terres Australes pour Servir a l'Histoire des Voyages...1753
  • Ref #:  17040
  • Size: 15in x 10in (380mm x 255mm)
  • Date : 1753
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description: 
This original beautifully hand coloured copper plate engraved antique map of Australia - one of the earliest, near complete maps, dedicated to the Island Continent - was engraved in 1753 by Jacques Nicolas Bellin  - date engraved in the title -and was published in the 1753 edition of Prevosts Histoire Generale Des Voyages.

Background: This is one of the few 18th century maps to focus on the Australian continent prior to Cook's famous first voyage from 1768-1771. Mainland Australia is connected to both Tasmania (Terre de Van Diemen) and Papua New Guinea (Nouv. Guinee). Along the imaginary eastern coastline is a note that reads: "I suppose that the land of Diemen can join with the land of the Holy Ghost, but this is without proof." A partial coastline of New Zealand is shown peeking out of the corner of the map, with a note that it was discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642 and speculation that it might be part of a great southern continent. This is an important map of Australia depicting the interesting theories made prior to exploration of the region later in the 18th century. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

General Description:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Yellow, green, red, brown.
General color appearance: - Authentic and fresh
Paper size: - 15in x 10in (380mm x 255mm)
Plate size: - 11 1/2in x 8 1/2in (295mm x 215mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - Folds as issued
Verso: - None

$1,450.00 USD
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1753 Jacques Nicolas Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand, Pre Captain Cook

1753 Jacques Nicolas Bellin Antique Map of Australia & New Zealand, Pre Captain Cook

  • Title : Carte Reduite des Terres Australes pour Servir a l Histoire des Voyages...1753
  • Size: 14in x 10in (355mm x 255mm)
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Date : 1753
  • Ref #:  80279

Description:
This important, early original copper-plate engraved antique map of Australia, New Zealand & New Guinea, one of the earliest near complete maps dedicated to the Island Continent, by Jacques Nicolas Bellin was engraved by Jakob van der Schley in 1753 - date engraved in the title cartouche - and was published by Abbé Prévosts in the 1755 Dutch edition of Histoire Géneral des Voyages.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 14in x 10in (355mm x 255mm)
Plate size: - 11 3/4in x 8 1/2in (295mm x 215mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (20mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
This is one of the few maps prior to the mid 18th century to focus specifically on the Australian continent & surrounding islands, prior to Captain James Cooks famous first voyage to the south pacific, under secret instruction from the British Admiralty, between 1768 & 1771.
Mainland Australia is connected to both Tasmania (Terre de Van Diemen) and Papua New Guinea (Nouv. Guinee) Along the imaginary eastern coastline is a note that reads: I suppose that the land of Diemen can join with the land of Terre du St Esprit, but this is without proof. A partial coastline of New Zealand is shown peeking out of the corner of the map, with a note of discovery along the western coastline by Abel Tasman in 1642 and speculation that it might be part of a great southern continent, Terra Australis.

Jakob van der Schley aka Jakob van Schley 1715 - 1779 was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for La Vie de Marianne by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme, published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévosts Histoire générale des voyages are signed by van der Schley.
This is an important map of Australia depicting the interesting theories & misconceptions of the great southern land just prior to the extensive exploration & discoveries of the region in the later part of the 18th century. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

$1,750.00 USD
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