Le Neptune François

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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 Jean-

Dominique 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 (1600-

1667), a protégé of Cardinal Richelieu, teacher of

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.

Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (ca. 1632-1712)

Le Neptune François

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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

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,

“Carte des costes septentrionales d´Espagne

depuis Fontarabie jusqu´a Bayonne en Gallice”, and nº 29, “Carte des costes de Portugal et

Frontispiece of Le Neptune François (1693)

Title Page of Le Neptune François

Le Neptune François

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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.

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.

“Carte des costes septentrionales d´Espagne depuis Fontarabie jusqu´a Bayonne en Gallice”

Le Neptune François

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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.

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.

“Carte des costes de Portugal et de partie d´Espagne depuis le cap de Finisterre jusques au détroit de Gibraltar”