Unusual early map specific to the Shetland Islands.

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin was one of the greatest 18th century
map makers. He specialised in hydrography and was appointed to the French
Hydrographic office at the young age of 18 in 1721. Twenty years later he was
named the first “Ingenieur de la Marine” for the “Depot des Cartes et Plans de
la Marine” as well as Hydrographer to Louis XV of France. Over a fifty year
career, he published a multitude of important maps often from first hand
sources provided by naval officers, merchants and government sources. His level
of access was extraordinary. As well as publishing his own atlases, he was a
contributor to many seminal French works on exploration, including Abbee
Raynal’s “Histoire des Deux Indes”, Abbee Prevost’s “Histoire Generale des
Voyages” and Pierre de Charlevoix’s “Histoire et Description Generale de la
Nouvelle France”.

In 1762, Bellin decided to publish one of his most popular
and accessible works: “Le Petit Atlas Maritime”. The work came out in 1764 in five volumes and
proved extremely popular. Many of the maps were reduced versions which Bellin
had either contributed or published previously. However, there are some notable
exceptions, such as his famous map of Manhattan, which was sourced from a
manuscript map by J.B.L. Franquelin drawn in 1693. The five volumes usually
contain between 575 and 590 maps with
variations noted between individual examples. As the preparation took only two
years, it is very likely that Bellin had a majority of these copper plates
already available. The initial financial support for the atlas was from
Etienne-Francois, Duc de Choiseul, a highly placed French politician who was
credited for strengthening both the army and navy. Due to its accessibility, he
perceived the ”Petit Atlas Maritime” as a method of publicising both the work
of the “Depot de la Marine” and the Navy to the general public. Bellin includes
a long dedication to Choiseul on the front of each volume.

For collectors today, the work presents one of the widest
selection of extremely desirable smaller maps. They provide clear, concise and
attractive geographical records of some of the most inaccessible and exotic
areas of the world in the mid-18th century. Bellin was part of a group called
“Les Philosophes”, the French counterpart to the pioneers of the English Age of
Reason and his maps are a lasting legacy from the Age of French Enlightenment.

France and Scotland had traditionally close ties, united in their enmity of England. Hence, the French Hydrographic Office would have any number of accurate charts of the country and its islands donated by sympathisers to the Jacobite cause.

Original colour. [SCOT1784]