18th century nautical chart on Mercator's Projection

BELLIN, Jacques-Nicolas.

An Essay of a New and Compact Map Containing the Known Parts of the Terrestrial Globe by N. Bellin Engineer of the Marine.
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, c.1750. Coloured. 520 x 700mm.

Scarce Dutch edition of Bellin's influential mid-eighteenth century sea chart of the world on Mercator's Projection, engraved by Schley after Bellin's original, showing what was known twenty years before Cook's first circumnavigation. Australia and New Zealand are partial outlines; Jesso and Campanies Land appear above Japan; and north west America is lightly shaded to show a guessed coast, with a waterway from the Great Lakes almost to the Pacific Coast, a potential North West Passage.


Stock ID : 22307