Antique Map-SPITSBERGEN-NORWAY-DUTCH-ISLAND-Bellin-Prevost-1758

This print shows a view on a map of Spitsbergen (Svalbard), Norway, with the adjacent islands of Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayan. There is good detail of the rocks, shoals, regions of ice, and anchorages with notations concerning discoveries and explorations. A French-style decorative title cartouche, fleur-de-lis, and rhumb lines complete the chart.

Made by Jacques Nicolas Bellin after Prevost.

Medium: Engraving on handlaid (verge) paper.

Sheet size: 35.5 x 26 cm (13.98 x 10.24 inch). Image size: 30 x 21.5 cm. (11.81 x 8.46 inch).

Condition: good, given age. Brownish. Folds as published. Diagonal fold. Paper loss left margin. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully.

SPITSBERGEN-NORWAY-DUTCH-ISLAND | RBOS-A10-34

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This attractive print was published in Prevost’s “Histoire Generale des Voyages” 1758.

Biography engraver: Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 ? 21 March 1772) was a French hydrographer, geographer, and member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes.

Bellin was born in Paris. He was hydrographer of France’s hydrographic office, member of the Academie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50-year career, he produced many maps of particular interest to the Ministere de la Marine. His maps of Canada and of French territories in North America (New France, Acadia, Louisiana) are particularly valuable. He died at Versailles.