DESCRIPTION: Antique, attractive early 18th-century working portolan-style nautical chart of the western Mediterranean Sea with the southern coasts of France and Spain. This original rare nautical chart was produced by Henri Michelot and Laurent Bremond, who had close, first-hand experience with many of the areas they charted.
Chart coverage includes the Mediterranean coasts of Europe and Africa (Barbarie) from the Strait of Gibraltar and Ceuta in the west through Marbella, Malaga, Almeria and Cartagena to Cap Palle in the east. Dozens of guard towers are noted along the coast; they would have been crucial during that era of intense raiding from the Barbary coast. Includes two large insets, one of Gibraltar and the other of the Bay of Tangier (Tanger).
Some unique features not found in other Michelot and Bremond antique nautical charts include a depiction of a navigator (Michelot?) sitting atop bales of merchandise embellished with initials and symbols related to the authors and engraver, and surrounded by maritime objects and navigational instruments including chart, compass and cross-staff. A separate and unexplained distance scale is included inside the neatline near bottom left. As these additional scales are found only on small-scale charts, their probable intended usage is for navigators' placement of divider points so as not to damage the master distance scale by repeated pricking.
Henry Michelot and Laurens Bremond
Henri Michelot was an early eighteenth century French cartographer with a close connection to the sea. He described himself as Hydrographer and Pilot of the Galere Royale (Royal Galley), and was associated with a corps of approximately forty galleys (galeres), oared sailing vessels operating in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast. In the Mediterranean, these galleys were based primarily at the naval arsenal in Marseilles, France. They were typically rigged with triangular Mediterranean lateen sails, a configuration well suited to coastal navigation and variable winds.
Bookseller and royal hydrographer Laurent Bremond, styled “Hydrographe du Roi et de la Ville,” sold charts and maritime books from his establishment in Marseille, located near the port at the corner of Reboul Street (“au Coin de Reboul”). Bremond played a key role in the commercial distribution of nautical knowledge, supplying working mariners as well as official and institutional clients.
The collaborative output of Michelot and Bremond, produced roughly between 1715 and 1730, included an atlas of sixteen small-scale charts, a port book containing thirty-seven large-scale charts, and a Mediterranean coast pilot titled Portulan de la Mer Mediterranee, ou Guide des Pilotes Cotiers. Issued in multiple languages and published in editions extending at least to 1805, this body of work became a primary source of navigational information for the Mediterranean for many decades. The charts of Michelot and Bremond were highly influential and were frequently copied by later chartmakers, including Kitchin and Roux.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1723
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Spain
BODY OF WATER: Mediterranean, Bay of Gibraltar, Bay of Tangiers
CONDITION: Very good.
Strong paper, no holes or tears. Clean and bright. Professionally remargined outside the neatline at top. Printer's smudges to extreme right center.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: P. Starck-man
SIZE: 27
" x
19 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 0
PRICE: $1850
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