Title: Carte de l’Isle de Sumatra Dressée sur les Journaux des Navigateurs Et sur plusieurs Cartes Manuscrites qui sont au Dépôt des Plans de la Marine. Par le Sr. Bellin Ing.r ord: de la Marine.

Detailed map of the island of Sumatra and the southern tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. It is an unusually detailed map of the area, showing many coastal features, shoals, banks and small islands. A legend lower left gives the local terms for river, cape and island and says that the interior of the island of Sumatra and the course of rivers are unknown. Including Singapore Island but not specifically named, several other lesser islands are named including Tioman Island, Banca, and Penang. The cities of Palembang, Jambi, Manimcabo, Aceh and Batang are located.At lower right is Tome IX no. 6 identifying this map coming from the ninth volume of Abbé Prévost’s ‘Histoire Generale des Voyage’.

About the cartographer
Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes. In 1721, at age 18, he was appointed chief cartographer to the French Navy. In August 1741, he became the first Ingénieur de la Marine of the Depot des cartes et plans de la Marine (the French Hydrographical Office) and was named Official Hydrographer of the French King.
During his period the Depot published a considerable number of charts and maps among which  a large folio format sea-chart of France, the Neptune Francois. His maps of Canada and of French territories in North America (New France, Acadia, Louisiana) are particularly valuable. He also produced a number of sea-atlases of the world, e.g., the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise and smaller format maps such as the 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime (5 vols.) containing 580 finely detailed charts. He also contributed a number of maps for the 15-volume Histoire Generale des Voyages of Antoine François Abbé Prévost.

Bellin set a very high standard of workmanship and accuracy thus gaining for France a leading role in European cartography and geography.

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