Le Neptune François INGLÉS - Cofradía Europea de la Vela

Le Neptune François
The nautical charts from Spain and Portugal in Le Neptune François
Carolina Puertas Mosquera and Carmelo Puertas Olivet
The splendor of French cartography began in the final years of the XVII century. The
ambitions of Louis XIV brought in an awakening interest in scientific thinking which was
reflected through the creation of the Academy of Sciences in 1666 and the Observatory of
Paris in 1667 for whose management Minister Jean Colbert (1619-1683) appointed JeanDominique Cassini.
During the decade of the 1680s, Colbert, with the dedicated support of Louis XIV,
commissioned a group of the Academy’s mathematicians and astronomers with the
assistance of marine hydrographers to survey the coasts of continental Europe. This team
was headed by Joseph Sauver (1653- 1716), who was also master of mathematics to the
royal princes and Academician, and marine engineer and Academician Jean-Mathieu de
Chazelles (1630- 1682), with the initial assistance of the astronomers Jean Picard (1620-1682)
and Philippe de La Hire (1640-1718).
The result was a magnificent atlas, Le Neptune
François ou Recueil des Cartes Marines levées et gravées
par ordre du roy, with 29 charts of the coast from
Norway to Gibraltar and which was published in
1693 at the Imprimerie Royale under the supervision
of the appointed Royal Geographer Alexis-Hubert
Jaillot
(Avignon-lès-Saint-Claude,
ca.
1632-París,
1712). Jaillot, editor and engraver as well as
geographer, was assisted in this work by Guillaume
Sanson, son of Nicolas Sanson d´Abbeville (16001667), a protégé of Cardinal Richelieu, teacher of
Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (ca. 1632-1712)
geography to Louis XIII and Louis XIV and who
excelled in the publication of maps.
The privilege to publish Le Neptune had been conceded two years before its appearance on
the 27th December 1691 to Charles Pène, a surveyor in charge of the King’s of charts and
maps. The work was advertised in the “Journal de Sçavans” on the 11th of January 1694 and
sold through Chez Claude Gournai. A second volume for the navigation of the
Mediterranean was announced, but was never published.
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Le Neptune François
Its impact in the field of marine cartography
and chorography was of such magnitude
that, in the same year as its appearance in
Paris, Pieter Mortier (1661-1711) published an
edition in Amsterdam. Mortier, son of a
French political refugee had acquired the
licence for publication and distribution in
Holland in 1690 of French atlases. With Le
Neptune François, considered like a master
piece of French baroque cartography, Mortier
was able to compete with De Nieuwe Groote
Lichtende Zeefakkel (1681), an impressive pilot
guide which had represented a monopoly in
the field of marine cartography for Johannes
Van Keulen (1654-1715). Besides the French
Frontispiece of Le Neptune François (1693)
original, Mortier published editions in Dutch and English which became the most
expensive marine atlas published in Amsterdam to that date.
Le Neptune François with decorated and larger size charts than hitherto in any other similar
publication presented navigators with a highly efficient modern tool and offered them a
deeper knowledge of the European coastline. The numerous details and new data which it
contained represented a new concept in marine
cartography. However its use in practice by
mariners was limited and the latter preferred to
use their old charts as the new ones were
considered too large and too costly and in
addition liable to error due to the high number
of mathematical calculation necessary in their
handling. Empiricism and oral tradition were
still the basis of navigation and this magnificent
work was considered more as a piece for the
Cabinet des Coquilles of Louis XIV than as a
guide to use at sea.
The last two charts of Le Neptune François, nº 28,
Title Page of Le Neptune François
“Carte des costes septentrionales d´Espagne
depuis Fontarabie jusqu´a Bayonne en Gallice”, and nº 29, “Carte des costes de Portugal et
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Le Neptune François
de partie d´Espagne depuis le cap de Finisterre jusques au détroit de Gibraltar”, relate to
the north and west coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. Both are copied from the charts of Minet
and Gennes who had been instructed to survey the coasts of Spain and Portugal.
“Carte des costes septentrionales d´Espagne depuis Fontarabie jusqu´a Bayonne en Gallice”
The first of these charts, number 28 was engraved on copper plate by Herman Van Loon,
who was working in Amsterdam and Paris from 1686. It consists of four sections which
together illustrate the Spanish coastline from the northwest to the French border:
Fuenterrabia – Castro Urdiales, Castro Urdiales – Gijón, Gijón – La Coruña and, finally, La
Coruña - Bayona (not to be confused with the French Bayonne) –. Each section overlaps
slightly with the following one as an aid to continuation. The main geographical features
are shown as well as population centers represented by a small group of buildings and in
some cases indicating activities and trade: shipyards in San Sebastian, Mundaca, Laredo
and Santander and trade in iron and fish in Guetaria and Lequeitio confirming, in this way,
the importance of metal industries in the Basque Country since the end of the Middle Ages.
In other places local productions figure: oranges, lemons and hazelnuts in San Vicente de la
Barquera; walnuts, chestnuts and oranges in Villviciosa; in Gijón fish; in Avilés walnuts,
hazelnuts and oranges; for Fontán wine, sardines, oranges and lemons and finally sardines
again in Nemiña and Muros.
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Le Neptune François
The second chart, number 29, also engraved by Van Loon and with abundant toponymy,
includes another part of the Galician coastline from Finisterre to Tuy and then continues
down to Gibraltar. Two sections at a larger scale are inserted in the upper left hand corner:
Carte des ports de Lisbonne, de Setuval, et de leurs environs and Carte de la rade de Cadiz & des
environs. The representation of various salt pans stands out in locations such as Aveiro,
Setúbal, Azam, Távila, Castromarín, the estuary of the Guadalquivir River and Puerto Real
near Cadiz. The extraction and commerce in Portuguese salt had an enormous impact
between the XVI and XVIII centuries making Setúbal one of the most important European
centers in this trade.
“Carte des costes de Portugal et de partie d´Espagne depuis le cap de Finisterre jusques au détroit de
Gibraltar”
Both charts are orientated to the north with a 16 point wind rose in nº 28 and 8 points in the
case of nº 29 with 32 rhumb lines radiating from them. Information is also given on
soundings, sand banks, type of sea floor and harbours.
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