OBSERVATIONS SUR LA CONSTRUCTION DE LA CARTE DES MERS COMPRISES ENTRE L'ASIE & L'AMERIQUE, APPELLÉES PAR LES NAVIGATEURS MER DU SUD & MER PACIFIQUE; POIUR SERVIR AUX VAISSEAUX DU ROI. DRESSÉE AU DÉPÔT DES CARTES, PLANS & JOURNAUX DE LA MARINE PAR ORDRE DE
Bellin, Jacques Nicolas:
[Paris. 1741]. 20pp. Quarto. Stitched as issued with contemporary blank wrapper. Blind pressure stamp of the Library of the Earls of Macclesfield on the first two leaves of printed text. Slight dusting at outer edges, otherwise internally fresh and clean. A very good copy. In a half morocco box. The rare first edition of Bellin's extensive account of his map of the Pacific with the coasts of western Latin America and eastern Asia. The work includes an analysis of the map, description of the coasts of America from California to Cape Horn, and the coasts of China, Japan, the Philippines, the Moluccas, and New Holland. In addition to geographic locations, explorers in the various regions are also mentioned. The cartographer, Bellin, was employed for more than five decades in the French Hydrographic Service, where he served as the first Ingénieur hydrographe de la Marine. Commissioned to develop new surveys of the coasts of France and then the known coasts of the world, these were published, respectively, as LE NEPTUNE FRANÇAIS in 1735 and HYDROGRAPHIE FRANÇAIS between 1756 and 1765. Bellin also published a PETIT ATLAS MARITIME with 580 charts and plans of harbors, issued in five volumes in 1764. The present work was one of thirty reprinted pamphlets in the author's RECUEIL DES MEMOIRES QUI ONT ÉTÉ PUBLIÉS AVEC LES CARTES HYDROGRAPHIQUES (Paris, ca. 1767). Remarkably rare, here in original wrappers stitched as issued. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 741/16. SABIN 4556 (note). BARRETT 250.
(Item ID: WRCAM38509) $5,000.00