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1746 Bellin Map of Madeira and Porto Santo, Portugal

MaderePortosanto-bellin-1746
$75.00
Carte des Isles de Madere et Portosanto. Dressée sur les Journaux des plus habiles Navigateurs. - Main View
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1746 Bellin Map of Madeira and Porto Santo, Portugal

MaderePortosanto-bellin-1746

Attractive map of Madeira and Porto Santo - known for their New Year's Eve Fireworks!

Title


Carte des Isles de Madere et Portosanto. Dressée sur les Journaux des plus habiles Navigateurs.
  1746 (undated)     6.25 x 8.75 in (15.875 x 22.225 cm)     1 : 1100000

Description


This is a 1746 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin map of Madeira and Porto Santo, Portugal. The map depicts the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas Islands, an archipelago 250 miles south of the Canary Islands. Very attractive, the important details of the islands are included. Funchal, St. Croix, and Manchico are labeled on Madeira. Harbors are labeled at St. Croix and Manchico. A settlement is depicted on Porto Santo, along with a harbor, although it is not labeled. Along the northern coast of Madeira, a note is included, stating 'On ne connoit point de mouillage dans cette partie' (We do not know of any anchorage in this part). In other words, there were no known anchorages on that side of the island. Today, Madeira has been an autonomous region of Portugal since 1976, and is also a region of the European Union.

This map was produced by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin in 1746.

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...

Condition


Very good. Blank on verso.

References


OCLC 956309183.