- Title: Carte de l'Ocean Occidental
- Author: Jacques-Nicolas Bellin
- Date: 1746
- Medium: Copperplate engraving
- Condition: Good - light age toning, narrow left margin, vertical fold lines, paper reinstated w/ manuscript facsimile in lower left corner and over the Strait of Gibraltar
- Inches: 18 1/4 x 12 1/2 [Image]
- Centimeters: 46.36 x 31.75 [Image]
- Product ID: 3110021
Carte de l'Ocean Occidental Dressée pour Servir à l'Histoire Générale des Voyages
"Map of the Western Ocean Drawn up for use in the General History of Travel."
Map of the Atlantic Ocean by French hydrographer and geographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772). Includes the United States' east coast, labeling Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania with the city of Philadelphia, the Chesapeake Bay, Boston, New York City (labeled as 'Manate, ou Nouve. York), Lake Ontario, Nova Scotia, and the city of Quebec. Shows much of the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America, including Guyana, Panama, and the city of Cartagena. Across the ocean, Bellin depicts western Europe, marking the cities of Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, and London, among others. He also includes the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands, as well as Atlantic islands such as the Azores, the Cape Verde Isles, and the Canary Islands. Longitude from the Ferro Meridian, which is prominently labeled. In the map's center appears a detailed compass rose, and rhumb lines extend from various points across the ocean. Published as part of Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles influential travel book, L'Histoire Generale des Voyages.
Bellin produced a prodigious body of work over a nearly fifty-year career. Appointed hydrographer of the French Navy at the age of eighteen, he eventually became Hydrographer to the King in 1741. He published numerous sea atlases and charts which would be reprinted into the nineteenth century, as well as many maps depicting French colonial territories in the New World. His craftsmanship and commitment to accuracy earned him a distinguished reputation as one of the world's leading cartographers, and many other European mapmakers turned to him for source material.