Neptune François
The first edition of Mortier's Atlas Maritime,
"Neptune François", one of the most spectacular cartographical
works ever produced.
According to Koeman: "...the most expensive
sea-atlas ever published in Amsterdam ... Its charts are larger and more
lavishly decorated than those of any preceding book of this kind. For the
engraving and etching Mortier had recruited the most qualified artists.
This magnificent work was intended more as a show piece than something to
be used by pilots at sea." Through its publication Pieter Mortier (1661-1711) wanted
to compete with De Nieuwe Groote Lichtende Zeefakkel, the
impressive pilot-guide that had established a monopoly for Johannes van
Keulen (1654-1715) in the field of maritime cartography since 1681.
In the 1680s Jean Colbert (1619-1683) commissioned a group of
mathematicians and astronomers of the Académie Royale des Sciences to map
the coasts of the European continent from Norway to Gibraltar, together
with hydrographers of the French Navy. This resulted in a magnificently
engraved atlas of 29 leaves, which was printed in 1693 by the Imprimerie
Royale in Paris. Publication was the responsibility of the royal
geographer Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (1632-1712).
In that very year Pieter
Mortier's reproduction was published: engraved and printed in exactly the
same way. Mortier was the son of a French political refugee, and had in
1690 been granted the privilege of distributing the maps and atlases of
French publishers in Holland, a privilege he did, indeed, take full
advantage of. As it was impossible for him to acquire the original
copperplates, he had the charts newly engraved and subsequently put on the
market under the original imprint. This was also the case with Le
Neptune françois, of which he published no fewer than three different
editions: in addition to the French edition there also appeared an English
and a Dutch one.
In that same year, 1693, Mortier published a second part,
Cartes marines à l'usage des armées du roy de la Grande Bretagne.
This part, usually bound together with Le Neptune françois, contains nine
large-size charts which, contrary to the first part, are not of French but
of English origin. They were designed and engraved by Romeyn de Hooghe,
then in the service of William III, the king-stadholder. These charts are
among the highlights of Dutch seventeenth-century cartography.
Part one:
Engraved frontispiece by Jan van Vianen, printed
title, 3 ships and distance table in Dutch, French and English, 29 charts
in unusual large format covering the coasts of Europe minus the
Mediterranean (first editions, with only imprint 'A Paris 1693'.
Part two:
Engraved frontispiece and 9 charts by Romein de Hooghe,
who was at that time in the service of King William III of England.
Reference : Koeman, Atlantes, IV, M.Mor 1A; M.Mor 5,E./ D. de Vries. 'Chartmaking is the power and glory of the country', in: Mirror of Empire. Dutch marine art of the seventeenth century. [Minneapolis] 1990, p. 65-66.
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