1773 "CARTE du Cours du MARAGNON ou de la GRANDE RIVIERE DES AMAZONES" Fine Map of the Amazon River From the Exciting La Condamine Expedition. Detailed regional map, showing the course of the Amazon River from the Andes to the Atlantic. It was originally drawn by Charles Marie de la Condamine, a French savant who journeyed to South America to measure the arc of the meridian and returned to the Atlantic via the Amazon. The map shows the northern section of South America, which is today comprised of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Here, the main political units are Brazil, held by the Portuguese; Guiane, which is split between Dutch and French control; and the Spanish and Portuguese missions in north-central and northwest South America. These missions were run principally by the Jesuit order.
The main focus is the Amazon River and its tributaries. Overlaying the map is another, phantom river. This is the outline of the most famous map of the Amazon River to precede this example. It was printed in Quito in 1707, the first map to be printed there. The author was Father Samuel Fritz, a Jesuit missionary, who is referenced in several notes on this map. The title explains that this map was taken from a variety of modern manuscript sources, but the main source was la Condamine, a French academician who had been part of a scientific voyage to Peru in the 1740s.
Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) was among the most important mapmakers of the eighteenth century. In 1721, at only the age of 18, he was appointed Hydrographer to the French Navy. In August 1741, he became the first Ingénieur de la Marine of the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine (the French Hydrographic Office) and was named Official Hydrographer of the French King. During his term as Official Hydrographer, the Dépôt was the one of the most active centers for the production of sea charts and maps in Europe. Their output included a folio-format sea atlas of France, the Neptune Francois. He also produced a number of sea atlases of the world, including the Atlas Maritime and the Hydrographie Francaise. These gained fame and distinction all over Europe and were republished throughout the eighteenth and even in the nineteenth century. Bellin also produced smaller format maps such as the 1764 Petit Atlas Maritime, containing 580 finely-detailed charts. He also contributed a number of maps for the 15-volume Histoire Generale des Voyages of Antoine François Prévost.Bellin set a very high standard of workmanship and accuracy, cementing France's leading role in European cartography and geography during this period. Many of his maps were copied by other mapmakers across the continent.
Size approx 39cm x 19cm with folds folds as issued. Generally good condition with later hand colour.
