- Title: Plan de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur les Manuscrits du Depot des Cartes de la Marine
- Author: Jacques-Nicolas Bellin
- Date: 1744
- Condition: Excellent - issued folds, uniform age toning
- Inches: 11 x 7 3/4 [Image]
- Centimeters: 27.94 x 19.68 [Image]
- Product ID: 308313
First State, First Edition of the Earliest Obtainable Map of New Orleans, Louisiana
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin's 1744 map, titled Plan de la Nouvelle-Orleans sur les Manuscrits du Depot des Cartes de la Marine, is a highly significant cartographic work. This map is the earliest obtainable depiction of New Orleans, Louisiana, and represents the first edition and first state of Bellin's plan.
The map, oriented to the northwest, provides a detailed view of the original New Orleans settlement along the Mississippi River. It extends inland to the "Fosse plein d'eau" near present-day Dauphine Street, and from modern-day Iberville Street to Barracks Street, though these streets are not named on the map.
Bellin's plan meticulously illustrates about 100 buildings, with 18 specific locations identified in an alphabetized table located just above the map. This earliest version is distinguishable by the date at right of the title and the engraver's name, Guillaume Dheulland, in the bottom right margin.
Originally created to accompany Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix's Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France, the map proved highly influential and was later included in Provost's Histoire des Voyages and subsequent editions of Charlevoix's work.
Cartographer
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was a French hydrographer and geographer who 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. Bellin 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.
References
Lemmon, A., Magill, J., and Wiese, J., Charting Louisiana: Five Hundred Years of Maps, #171.