Michelot and Bremond
1727

Barcelona, Spain port and fortification plan

Plan de la Ville et Port de Barcelone du Fort de Mont Jouy et l'Etat ou ils Entoeint en 1697

DESCRIPTION: One of the first port plans of Barcelona, Spain (from 1727) created for navigational purposes in an atlas for the Mediterranean Sea: “Recueil de Plusiers Plans des Ports et Rades de la Mer Mediterranee". This chart was published by the team of Henri Michelot and Laurens Bremond, both associated with the French Royal Galley Corps. In their business relationship it appears that Bremond provided the retail space in the port of Marseille, France where this chart, as well as other atlases and nautical prints were sold. Michelot, the chief pilot or"Pilote Hauturière" for the galley service provided the name recognition and authority needed for the charts to sell widely.

The chart covers from Mont-Jouy ( Montjuïc ) in the West to the far Eastern walls at Barcelona's edge. The chart shows Barcelona's fortifcations with numerous bastions; redoubts, gun batteries, windmills, the arsenal, and 5 entrances into the city: the Porte de Mont-Jout; Porte St. Antoine; Porte de l'Ange; Porte Neuve; and Porte de la Marine, near the harbor. Depth soundings extend only in the interrior harbor, and are intersperced with anchor symbols reflecting locations where sea-going vessels could find shelter. In the title cartouche the authors note that the plan is based on the state they observed in 1697, likely during Michelot's service for the Louis XIV's Corps des Galeres.

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.

CREATOR: Michelot and Bremond

PUBLICATION DATE: 1727

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Spain

BODY OF WATER: Mediterranean Sea

CONDITION: Fair. Paper delicate. Marginal tears, and missing three small marginal pieces, outside the neatline, not affecting the printed area. A bit dark and grubby at the right side.

COLORING: None

ENGRAVER: P. Starck-man

SIZE: 10 " x 7 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 4

PRICE: $200

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