Map of Australia with supposed east coast from Bellin's map c1753.

by Bellin, Jacques Nicolas

Map of Australia before Captain Cook's discoveries (from Bellin map c1753): Carte Reduite des Terres Australes (Nouvelle Hollande) pour servir a l’histoire des voyages. Par le Sr Bellin Ing. De la Marine. De la Societe Royale de Londres &ca  1753.

Reduced Chart of the Lands of the South (one of the few 18th century maps showing only Australia “New Holland”), by French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703-73), Marine Hydrographic Engineer of the Royal Society of London.., commissioned to survey all the known coasts of the world. Reproduction of a wondrous map of Australia (with hypothetical east coast, nearly 20 years prior to Captain Cook's discoveries) from a copperplate engraving published in Paris circa 1753 for Prevost’s L’Histoire Generale des Voyages (General History of Voyages). This map joins New Guinea and New Britain to the north, Terre du St Esprit (Espiritu Santu or New Hebrides), a section of Coste Nouvelle Zelande (New Zealand Coast), and Terre de Van Diemen (Tasmania), with the remark (in French) along the dotted line, "I suppose that the land of Diemen could join with the land of the Holy Ghost but this is without proof".

This reproduction map has been printed in brown ink on cream paper. Map image is 27 x 36cm (10.5 x 14 inches) (Corner angles are 90 degrees!)