Map of the world on Mercator's Projection focusing on navigation and the latest discoveries made in the Pacific by Cook and the emerging coastline of the Pacific Northwest of America.


Early iterations of this map were first issued by Jacques Nicholas Bellin in the "Neptune François" in the 1740s. This was an ambitious series of charts showcasing French maritime mapping expertise and influence throughout the world. There were several editions of this chart as mariners revealed more and more of the world's coastlines. The first version of this particular map was issued in 1755 but this example was revised and updated to 1784, twelve years after the death of Bellin. The whole series of maps makes a fascinating chronicle of marine discoveries in the 18th century.


This 1784 edition is one of the last versions of this map and notable for the incorporation of Cook's discoveries in the Pacific, particularly the shape of Australia and the completion of the coastline of New Zealand. A further area of geographical development is the North Pacific, again explored by Cook but also showing discoveries made by earlier expeditions, most notably by Vitus Behring. Unusually, the Straits between Asia and America are called "Detroit du Nord" as opposed to Behring Straits, a geographical throwback to the earlier iterations of this map when Behring had not become synonymous with this geographical feature.


This map advanced the knowledge of the coastline of these landmasses, but the interior was still a mystery, particularly in the case of Africa, which was based on much earlier speculation together with the interior of North America, which has been left mostly as unknown, with the exception of an attempt to show a series of great lakes on the west coast of Hudson's Bay; this was again a throwback to the increasingly unlikely theories of a navigable Northwest Passage through northern Canada.


Aesthetically, the map is strong for this period, with the presence of a large cartouche on the lower left, which also serves as a dedication to Jean Baptiste de Machault, Keeper the Seal of France and Secretary to the Navy in 1754. A further text panel is present on the lower right, explaining the projection used for this map while the lower centre bears a large compass rose. SL [WLD4544]