Fort of Dauphin Madagascar Antique map Bellin 1756
Title: Plan du Fort Dauphin, Construit par les Francois dans L' Isle de Madagascar, Pour Servir a l' Histoire Generale des Voyages, 1756.
Description: Interesting map of Tôlanaro or Tolagnaro Madagascar, formerly named Fort Dauphin, it was the first French settlement in Madagascar in the early centuries.
Biography: Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 - 1772). Bellin was born in Paris, and entered the Naval Chart and Plan Depot in 1721. He was hydrographer of France's hydrographic office, cartographer and geographer of the Navy. Also member of the French intellectual group called the philosophes (dominated by Voltaire and Montesquieu), and member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50 year career, he produced a large number of sea charts, maps, and sea-atlases of the world, e.g., French Neptune (1753), Map of North America (1755), French Hydrography (1756) le Petit Atlas maritime (1764) an collection of maps and plans of the four parts of the world, in five volumes and New method for learning geography (1769). Bellins country and sea maps based on the documents of the Naval Chart Depot were also issued in Histoire générale des voyages (15 vols., Paris, 1746-1759), continued by Father Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles (Abbe Prevost ) and other writers.
Size: Leaf app.: 30 x 23 cm. 12 x 9 inches. Image app.: 28 x 20.5 cm. 11 x 8 inches. Condition: Fine map in good condition, folds as published, part border redone.
