Carte Reduite du Golfe de Bengale, depuis L‘Isle de Ceyland jusqu‘au Golfe de Siam avec la partie Septentrionale du Detroit de Malac [Set of 2]
A Master Chart of the Eastern Seas: Mannevillette’s Chart of the Bay of Bengal and the Straits of Malacca
a) Carte Reduite du Golfe de Bengale, depuis L'Isle de Ceyland jusqu'au Golfe de Siam avec la partie Septentrionale du Detroit de Malac
Print size: 19.5 x 26.75 in (49.5 x 68 cm)
Sheet size: 21.25 x 30.75 in (54 x 78 cm)
Folded: 21.25 x 15.25 in (54 x 39 cm)
This impressive 1775 blue-water chart, Carte Réduite du Golfe de Bengale, is among the most important hydrographic productions of the eighteenth century. It was issued for the revised edition of Mannevillette’s Le Neptune Oriental, “the most influential work of hydrography dealing with Asia in its time,” whose charts “quickly became the indispensable atlas for ship owners, captains and pilots engaged in the Southeast Asian trade route.”
The chart extends from Ceylon in the west to the Gulf of Siam in the east, and includes the northern reaches of the Straits of Malacca. It features the coastlines of modern-day India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Sumatra, rendered with exceptional clarity and supported by “extensive rhumb lines and fine detail along the coasts, naming ports, ocean passages, and islands of various sizes.”
Charts from the Neptune Oriental, are highly sought after for their beauty, accuracy and importance to eighteenth-century navigation. This sheet remains a particularly strong example, representing the authoritative French mapping of the Bengal and Southeast Asian waters at a pivotal moment in Indo-European maritime history.
b) Carte Réduite de l’Océan Oriental Septentrional, qui contient une partie des Côtes d’Afrique, de l’Arabie, de la Perse et celles de l’Indostan
Print size: 20 x 27 in (50.5 x 69 cm)
Sheet size: 21.25 x 30.75 in (54 x 78 cm)
Folded: 21.25 x 15.25 in (54 x 39 cm)
A major reduced sea chart of the Northern Indian Ocean, encompassing a vast maritime arena extending from the eastern coast of Africa, across Arabia and Persia, to the shores of Indostan (India). This chart synthesises the principal sea routes linking Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia—routes that underpinned global trade, diplomacy, and empire from the seventeenth century onward.
Produced by Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Denis d’après de Mannevillette, the map reflects the highest achievements of eighteenth-century French nautical cartography. Designed for oceanic navigation, it privileges hydrographic accuracy over decorative excess, presenting coastlines, soundings, and navigational intelligence with clarity and precision.
The chart charts the western Indian Ocean basin, including the approaches to the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the western and eastern coasts of India—regions that formed the commercial heart of Indo-European maritime exchange. The careful rendering of coastlines and sea space illustrates Mannevillette’s methodical integration of astronomical observation, compass bearings, and empirically tested sailing directions.
As with his Bay of Bengal charts, this work formed part of the intellectual and practical framework of the Neptune Oriental, a publication that decisively elevated French hydrography to parity with British and Dutch traditions. Mannevillette’s charts were consulted not only by French navigators but were also quietly adopted and adapted by rival maritime powers, attesting to their authority and reliability.
This map is emblematic of the transition from speculative geography to scientifically grounded maritime cartography. It embodies the Enlightenment ideal of knowledge as a tool of navigation, commerce, and power, and it stands as a cornerstone of Indian Ocean cartographic history.
Mannevillette’s achievement lay not only in his skill as a chartmaker but also in his long professional formation. Born into a maritime family, he sailed to India at the age of twelve, later returning to France to study navigation, chartmaking, and mathematics under Joseph-Nicolas Delisle before rising through the ranks of the French East India Company’s merchant fleet. His lifelong accumulation of navigational intelligence culminated in the first edition of Le Neptune Oriental (1745), commissioned with the support of the Académie des Sciences, and in the vastly expanded 1775 edition—the present chart being part of that monumental revision. This work occupied him for nearly thirty years, aided by his friend Alexander Dalrymple, the English hydrographer, and its excellence earned him numerous honours, including the Order of St Michael and an appointment as Director of Charts at Lorient.
(Set of two)
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