CARTE REDUITE DE L'ISLE DE LA MARTINIQUE. . .

A superb, extra large-scale nautical chart by Jacques Nicolas Bellin, depicting the island Martinique, filled with incredible detail. It shows roads, topography, soundings, villages, windmills, and plantations.
A large inset "Plan du Cul de Sac Royal de la Martinique" is surrounded by a rococo cartouche, balanced by the floral title cartouche in the opposite corner. Rhumb lines and a compass rose complete the composition. Its meticulous topographical and nautical detail makes this one of the major 18th-century maps of Martinique. Copperplate engraving/etching with hand coloring on hand-laid paper.

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772): French cartographer and engineer with the Departement de la Marine. Jacques Nicolas Bellin worked for the Depot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine for over fifty years. In 1741, he was appointed ingenieur hydrographe de la Marine. Later Bellin becomes 'Hidrographe du Roy' and a member of the Royal Society in London.
In 1764 he published 'Petit Atlas Maritime' in five volumes which contained several hundred maps. Among his other works are maps to l'Abbe Prevost's 'Histoire Generale des Voyages' (1746-1757). Bellin also produced many accurate and finely engraved separately issued maps.

The Dépôt de la Marine, known more formally as the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine, was the central charting institution of France. The centralization of hydrography in France began in earnest when Jean-Baptiste Colbert became First Minister of France in 1661. Under his watch, the first Royal School of Hydrography began operating, as did the first survey of France’s coasts (1670-1689).
In 1680, Colbert consolidated various collections of charts and memoirs into a single assemblage, forming the core of sources for what would become the Dépôt.
The Dépôt itself began as the central deposit of charts for the French Navy. In 1720, the Navy consolidated its collection with those government materials covering the colonies, creating a single large repository of navigation. By 1737, the Dépôt was creating its own original charts and, from 1750, they participated in scientific expeditions to determine the accurate calculation of longitude.

In 1773, the Dépôt received a monopoly over the composition, production, and distribution of navigational materials, solidifying their place as the main producer of geographic knowledge in France. Dépôt approved charts were distributed to official warehouses in port cities and sold by authorized merchants. The charts were of the highest quality, as many of France’s premier mapmakers worked at the Dépôt in the eighteenth century, including Philippe Bauche, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, Rigobert Bonne, Jean Nicolas Buache, and Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré.
The Dépôt continued to operate until 1886, when it became the Naval Hydrographic Service. In 1971, it changed names again, this time to the Naval and Oceanographic Service (SHOM). Although its name has changed, its purpose is largely the same, to provide high-quality cartographic and scientific information to the France’s Navy and merchant marine.