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1764 Bellin Map of Cispata Bay, Colombia
BayeDeZisapata-bellin-1764$62.50
Title
Plan de la Baye de Zisapata a la Coste de Terre ferme.
1764 (dated) 9.5 x 7.5 in (24.13 x 19.05 cm) 1 : 131456
1764 (dated) 9.5 x 7.5 in (24.13 x 19.05 cm) 1 : 131456
Description
This is an attractive 1764 Map of the Cispata Bay, Columbia by Jacques Nicolas Bellin. Oriented with north in the east, the map covers the Cispata Bay located near San Antero in Cordoba on the Colombian Caribbean Coast. Part of the Morrosquillo Gulf, Cispata beaches are popular tourist destinations, famous for their crystal clear beaches and white sands. The map notes several rivers, points and other topographical features. Some oceanic depths are indicated and coastal features noted. This map was issued by Jacques Nicolas Bellin in his 1764 edition of Le Petit Atlas Maritime Recueil De Cartes et Plans Des Quatre Parties Du Monde.
Cartographer
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703 - March 21, 1772) was one of the most important cartographers of the 18th century. With a career spanning some 50 years, Bellin is best understood as geographe de cabinet and transitional mapmaker spanning the gap between 18th and early-19th century cartographic styles. His long career as Hydrographer and Ingénieur Hydrographe at the French Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine resulted in hundreds of high quality nautical charts of practically everywhere in the world. A true child of the Enlightenment Era, Bellin's work focuses on function and accuracy tending in the process to be less decorative than the earlier 17th and 18th century cartographic work. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bellin was always careful to cite his references and his scholarly corpus consists of over 1400 articles on geography prepared for Diderot's Encyclopedie. Bellin, despite his extraordinary success, may not have enjoyed his work, which is described as "long, unpleasant, and hard." In addition to numerous maps and charts published during his lifetime, many of Bellin's maps were updated (or not) and published posthumously. He was succeeded as Ingénieur Hydrographe by his student, also a prolific and influential cartographer, Rigobert Bonne. More by this mapmaker...
Source
Bellin, J. N., Le Petit Atlas Maritime (Paris) 1764.
Bellin's Petit Atlas Maritime was a five volume atlas of all parts of the world published in Paris in 1764. The atlas is a combination of fresh material and previous issued Bellin maps. The breakdown of volumes is as follows: Volume I: North America and the Caribbean (102 Maps), Volume II: South America (89 maps), Volume III: Asia and Africa (127 maps), Volume IV: Europe (130 maps), and Volume V: France (132 maps), for a total of 580 maps and plans. This important atlas marked a major transition in European nautical mapping. It's significance is most accentuated by comparison to Bellin's other great atlas, L’Hydrographie Française, a large format work much akin to Dutch nautical atlases of the previous century. The Petit Atlas Maritime, on the other hand, was issued in a more compact format that allow for a diverse wealth of individual maps. Stylistically, it had more in common with European road atlases than with other nautical atlases of the period. As the largest collection of plans of harbors and nautical maps available at the time of publication, the Petite Atlas Maritime work proved popular with navigators and armchair adventurers alike. Its universal appeal gave rise to new convention in maritime mapping. The atlas was sponsored by the Duc de Choiseul. J. Arrivet is listed as engraver on the chart index pages, but there is a great likelihood he also engraved the maps and plans.
Condition
Very good. Original platemark visible. Minor Foxing.
References
Rumsey 6903.134.