NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA UNITED STATES 1744 BELLIN ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED CITY MAP

Description

NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA UNITED STATES 1744 BELLIN ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED CITY MAP
NEW ORLEANS LOUISIANA UNITED STATES 1744 BELLIN ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED CITY MAP
Description
Plan de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur les Manuscrits du Dépôt des Cartes de la Marine Par N. B. Ing.r de la M. 1744
.
Description:
Striking and highly detailed
fine
scarce 1744 Jacques Nicolas Bellin's first edition first state of earliest obtainable copper engraved map featuring an aerial plan of New Orleans, Louisiana. Oriented to the east, Bellin's map covers the original settlement of New Orleans along the Mississippi River and inland as far the Fosse plein d'eau (roughly translated: 'Pit full of Water') near modern day Dauphine Street, and from modern day Iberville Street (shown but not named) to modern day Barracks Street (shown but not named). The map shows some 100 buildings with some 18 specifically identified via an alphabetically coded table set just above the map.
There are several editions of this map. The present example, the earliest, is identifiable by the inclusion of the date in the upper right quadrant as well as the name of the engraver, Guillaume Dheulland, which appears in the bottom right margin. Bellin originally prepared this map to illustrate Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix's Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France. Later editions, most with slight modifications, were issued to accompany Provost's Histoire des Voyages and reissues of Charlevoix.
Charlevoix's history and this map in particular thus proved exceptionally influential as one of the most comprehensive works on North America predating the French and Indian War. Copies of the Histoire et description generale were to be found in the libraries of many 18th century luminaries, including Voltaire, Franklin, and Jefferson. Jefferson especially admired Charlevoix work, calling it 'a particularly useful species of reading' and no doubt influenced his decision to pursue the historic 1802 Louisiana Purchase, possibly the most significant event in the post-colonial history of North America
.
Source:
Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier de, Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France, avec le journal historique d'un voyage fait par ordre du roi dans l'Amérique septentrionnale, (Paris: Chez Rollin) 1744.
Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, (born Oct. 29, 1682, Saint-Quentin, France—died Feb. 1, 1761, La Flèche), French Jesuit who wrote one of the earliest descriptive accounts of North America.
Sent from France on a scientific and exploratory mission to Canada, where he had previously stayed, he traveled up the St. Lawrence River in 1720, passed through the Great Lakes, made the portage to the Mississippi River, survived shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico, and visited the island of Santo Domingo. Returning home, he wrote Histoire de Saint-Domingue and Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle-France, the latter especially of permanent value.
Date:
1744 ( dated )
Dimension:
Paper size approx.:
cm
31,1 x 20,6
Condition:
Very strong and dark impression on good paper. Paper with chains. Map uncolored. Short margin to the top. Lower margin missing. Wide right lateral margin. Quite left lateral margin, partially missing to the lower side. Corners partially missing. Small foxing and browning. Small tears. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images
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Mapmaker:
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.
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