DESCRIPTION: SOLD
Antique, original copperplate portulan-style coastal chart / plan of the Bay of Marseille and nearby islands. Coverage includes coastal France from Cap Couronne to Port Estat. Marseille shown with fortifications as they existed in the early 18th century.
Numerous soundings and marked anchorages on this antique nautical chart would have been useful to galley pilots and other mariners calling at Marseille. Single compass rose with radiating rhumb lines and fleur de lis indicating north. Henry Michelot's chart of Marseille was often copied by others such as Kitchin well into the late 1700's.
This chart is of special interest as Marseille was the chief base for the galleys (galères) of Louis XIV and XV as well as the home port for Michelot and Bremond. Also note that just seven year earlier, in 1720, the city of Marseilles had been subject to an outbreak of "la peste", bubonic plague that killed an estimated 40% of its population. The plague, spread from an arriving merchant ship was one of the last great outbreaks in Europe.
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: 1727
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: France
BODY OF WATER: Mediterranean
CONDITION: Very Good
Paper only very slightly tanned but strong with good platemark. Slightly browned at edges.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: P. Starck-man
SIZE: 9
" x
6 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 4
PRICE: $
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