Jacques N. Bellin

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703–1772) was a French hydrographer and cartographer who served for more than five decades as chief mapmaker to the French Navy. Born in Paris, he was appointed Ingenieur Hydrographe de la Marine in 1721 and later became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Over his career he produced thousands of charts, maps, and plans, many of which were issued through the Depot de la Marine. His works appeared both as individual sheets and in influential publications such as the Hydrographie Francaise and the multi-volume Histoire et Description Generale de la Nouvelle France by Charlevoix.

Bellin’s maps were widely respected for their precision and clarity, qualities that made them essential tools for navigation and administration in the age of French colonial expansion. He contributed more than a thousand maps to Abbe Prevost’s Histoire Generale des Voyages and also issued several atlases, including the Petit Atlas Maritime (1764). His output covered virtually every part of the world, reflecting the global reach of French exploration and trade in the eighteenth century. Bellin remained active until his death in Versailles in 1772, leaving a body of work that shaped European geographic knowledge well beyond France.