Beschreibung:

Le Neptune François, ou Atlas Nouveau des Cartes Marines. Levées et Gravées par ordre exprès du Roy. Pour l'usage de ses armées de mer. Paris: Hubert Jaillot, 1693 [but Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1693-1700]. A fine copy of one of the most beautiful of all maritime atlases, with the charts coloured by a contemporary hand. ‘The Neptune François in two parts and its third part Cartes Marines … was the most expensive sea-atlas ever published in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Its charts are larger and more lavishly decorated than those of any preceding book of its kind... This magnificent work was intended more as a show-piece than something to be used by the pilots at sea’ (Koeman). The second part, Suite du Neptune François , contains 10 maps of the Americas, including: ‘Carte Nouvelle de l'Amerique Angloise Contenant La Virginie, Mary-Land, Caroline, Pensilvania Nouvel Iorck, N. Iarsey’; ‘Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie, la Nouvelle Jersey’; ‘Carte Particuliere de la Caroline' and 'Mer du Sud ou Pacifique, Contenant l'Isle de Californe, les Costes de Mexique, du Perou, Chili et le Destroit de Magellanique’. Koeman IV, pp.423-431; Phillips Atlases 517. 3 parts in 2 volumes, folio (635 x 500mm). 3 engraved titles, title vignettes, 104 engraved charts and plates, comprising 71 charts coloured by a contemporary hand and 33 engraved plates. Modern antique-style calf panelled in gilt. Provenance : Filip Zuri (Abbot at the Velehrad Cistercian Monastery, Czech Republic, from 1763 until its abolition in 1784; inscriptions dated 1764 recording purchase on title-pages of parts 1 and 2) – inscription erased from title of part 1. [ Comprising, in volume one :] Part 1: Le Neptune François... Paris: Hubert Jaillot, 1693. Engraved allegorical title, letterpress title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved table of comparative nautical scales, 29 hand-coloured double-page charts of northern and western Europe (each without imprint); bound here is Koeman’s M. Mor 8, comprising: 19 plates of ships (only 18 called for by Koeman), 12 plates of flags (marginal thumbstains to allegorical title, title and one plate, tiny marginal stains in 2 charts, 2 charts with some browning). Koeman M. Mor 1. Part 2: Suite du Neptune François . Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1700. Engraved ‘Atlas Maritime’ allegorical title dated 1693, engraved compass of the winds, 33 hand-coloured engraved charts (mostly double-page, some folding) of Africa, Asia and the Americas, including Mortier’s ‘Carte generale de toutes les Costes du Monde’ [Shirley 559, with Witsen’s name in the title] (2 tiny rust stains in title, small repaired marginal tear in one chart, another with light browning). Koeman M. Mor. 7. [ in volume two :] Part 3: Cartes Marines à l'Usage des Armées du Roy de la Grande Bretagne... gravées et recueillies par le Sr. Romain de Hooghe. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1693. Engraved ‘Atlas Maritime’ allegorical title dated 1693, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 9 hand-coloured engraved charts by Romeyn de Hooghe most double-page, comprising 8 of the French and English Channel coasts dated 1693 and a large folding chart of the Mediterranean dated 1694, incorporating finely detailed insets showing ports and harbours (a few neatly repaired short tears at edges of the Mediterranean folding chart, tiny hole touching one letter in cartouche). Koeman M. Mor. 5: ‘The most spectacular type of maritime cartography ever produced in 17th century Amsterdam’.