- Title: Plan De La Nouvelle Orleans
- Author: Jacques-Nicolas Bellin
- Date: c.1760
- Condition: Excellent
- Inches: 10 3/4 x 7 1/2 [Image]
- Centimeters: 27.30 x 19.05 [Image]
- Product ID: 308578
This later issue presents a detailed bird’s-eye plan of the early French colonial city of New Orleans. It shows the layout of streets, city blocks, and significant buildings in a rectilinear grid pattern adjacent to the Mississippi River, which is shaded and labeled "Fleuve Missisipi." Key civic, religious, and military buildings are designated by capital letters, corresponding to a legend at the upper left. The legend references sites such as the Catholic church, barracks, powder magazine, governor’s house, royal hospital, and markets. The plan includes wharves ("Quay"), gardens, parade grounds, public squares, and the main thoroughfares including "Rue Royale," "Rue de Bourbon," and "Rue de Chartres." The map is elegantly engraved, with fine detail in hatching and building footprints, and features a north arrow and a graphic scale at the top right. The map was drafted after the official records of the French Naval Depot, attributed to Bellin, Ingenieur de la Marine.
Bellin's plan was first issued in Charlevoix's History and General Description of New France, in 1742 with later versions, such as this, used in several publications. The plan became the standard map of New Orleans throughout the eighteenth century.
Background on Creator
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.