DESCRIPTION: Title page to "Recueil de Plusieurs Plans des Ports et Rades de la Mer Mediterranee", Henry Michelot and Laurens Bremond's quarto-sized atlas of Mediterranean ports and harbors published between 1727 and 1730. This elaborately engraved title page is very rarely found alone, usually only as one of the 38 plates in a copy of the complete Michelot and Bremond atlas.
Interesting note is that on the bottom neatline, previously engraved wording has been hastily covered over before printing, with just top and bottom of characters still visible.
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: 1730
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: France
BODY OF WATER: N/A
CONDITION: Good
Numerous wormholes. Margins trimmed to the neatline.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: Starckman?
SIZE: 10
" x
7 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 1
PRICE: $215
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