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| Keywords: 1778 Bellin Nautical Chart or Map of the World - Geographicus - World-bellin-1778.jpg An attractive first edition first state example of J N Bellin ™s 1778 nautical chart of the world Presents the entire world on a Mercator Projection based on a Paris L ™Isle de Fer meridian This is notably the first state of this important map exhibiting a pre-Cook geography throughout but most specifically in the Pacific and along the northwest coast of America North America to the west of the Mississippi is vaguely rendered according to 16th century expeditions into the region by Coronado La Salle De Soto and others Bellin identifies the semi-mythical civilizations of Quivira and Teguayo both associated with legends of the Seven Cities of Gold in what is modern day Utah California and Nevada Along the western coast the strait discovered by Martin Aguilar is noted Further north still the River of the West Fl de l ™Ouest extends from the west coast to the Lake of the Woods Lac de Bois and thence via additional waterways to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic The River of the West appeared in many 18th century maps of the Americas and is reflective of French hopes for a water route from their colonies in Canada and Louisiana to the Pacific Still further north the coastline becomes extremely vague in places vanishing altogether The Aleutians are vaguely rendered according to various sightings by Vitus Jonassen Bering and Aleksei Chirikov in the 1740s and identified as the Archipel de Nord In the Pacific various Polynesian Island groups are noted though many are slightly or significantly misplaced The Solomon Islands are vastly oversized referencing the early 17th claims of Quiros The other lands discovered and erroneously mapped by Quiros in 1606 and Davis in 1686 during their search of the great southern continent are also noted Hawaii as yet undiscovered is absent New Zealand is rendered twice though is accurate in its form and position Australia here labeled Nouvelle Holland has part of its southern coastline ghosted in and Van Diemen ™s Land Tasmania is attached to the mainland The southern coast of New Guinea is similarly ghosted in suggesting its unexplored state It is of interest that there is a common misconception regarding this map that suggests the first edition was dated 1748 There are editions with a printed date of 1748 but these are actually later editions The 1748 date is a printing error in which 8 and 4 are transposed the actual date of publication being 1784 The first edition of this map is the 1778 example shown here 1778 dated Size in 27 5 19 5 object history credit line accession number World-bellin-1778 Geographicus-source PD-old-100 1770s maps of the world 1778 maps Maps in French Maps by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin | ||||
