Michelot and Bremond
1730

Plan de la Baye et Rades de Cadis et des Environs (Cadiz)

DESCRIPTION: Highly detailed antique chart of Cadiz, Spain from Rota to Chiclana showing guard towers, water sources, salt pans, and defenses with prominent topographical features drawn pictorially. Among the many noted habitations are: Medina (Medina-Sidonia), Rota (Rotta), St. Maria, Chiclana, and Puerto Real. Other features include Tour (tower) St. Sebastien, Tours d'Hercule, Canal de St. Pierre (with locations where galleons we built and careened), , Tour Vermea, Fort Matagord, Fort St. Laurent, and the Isle de Tour de St. Pierre.

Of special note is the hilltop village of Medina (Medina-Sidonia) used as a range marker for the main channel into the Bay of Cadiz. That village has a history that dates back to Roman times and was the ancestral home to the Duke of Medina Sidonia who reluctantly led and lost the Spanish "Invincible" Armada on a planned invasion of England in 1588.

This old chart and port plan of Cadiz is one of a handful of Michelot and Bremond charts that were copied by Thomas Kitchin and others for more than 30 years and it should be a part of any serious collection of maps from that region. The charts were published from Marseilles in Michelot's and Bremond's important 37-plate atlas of 1730: “Recueil de Plusiers Plans des Ports et Rades de la Mer Mediterranee".

Numerous soundings, underwater hazards, and anchorages are noted. Colored compass rose.

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: 1730

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: Spain

BODY OF WATER: Mediterranean

CONDITION: Very good. Paper only very slightly tanned but strong with good platemark. Strong impression.

COLORING: Modern detailed color on the compass rose.

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 10 " x 7 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 4

PRICE: $300

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