A beautifully engraved sea chart of the South Atlantic Ocean illustrating the continent of South America and the south west coast of Africa below the equator. The map was published by the French Hydrographical Office, the Dépôt de la Marine, and included in the sea atlas entitled ‘Hydrographie Francoise’. The mapmaker was Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772), one of the most important and prolific French cartographers of the mid-eighteenth century. The Dépôt des Cartes et Plans was founded in 1720 and the following year Bellin began working for them as the first Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine and became Royal Hydrographer. With access to the latest navigational reports, he produced a great many maps and charts of excellent quality compiling atlases of sailing charts for military and official use as well as for commercial publication.

The map extends as far north as the Isle St. Thomas off the coast of Africa. It extends southwards to take in all of Tierra del Fuego and westwards to include the west cost of South America. The Amazon River is included. It even includes a very uncertain ‘Cap de la Circonsision’ in the South Atlantic which was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier in 1739 at the tip of Bouvet Island. The map includes extensive rhumb lines and a fine title cartouche within South America. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Sanderson (1971) 210 no. 103; Shirley (2004) M.Bell 3a.