Plan de la Ville de Cartagene

Map of Cartagena, Colombia, the richest Spanish port in South America at the time, showing the successful French Raid of 1697 under the command of French privateer Bernard Desjean. This map was published in a late-18th century edition of Alexander Exquemelin's Histoire des Aventuriers Flibustiers, perhaps the most important contemporary history of piracy in the Americas. The book was first published in 1678, but underwent multiple translations, edits, and expansions throughout the 18th century. This map was originally engraved by Jean Baptiste Libeaux in 1698, but was used in several of the French editions of Exquemelin's book, starting around 1744. Some examples of this map have Liebaux's imprint along the lower margin, but on other examples it has been removed. This example does not feature the imprint and has clearly been re-engraved as the fonts and some of the illustrations have changed slightly, suggesting that this is from the 'new edition' published in Trevoux in 1775 .



Coloured. [SAM3297]