[Denmark] Carte de Detroit du Sond Contenant les Costes de L'Isle de Zélande Comprises ente Nicopen et L'Isle de Meun, et Celles du Schonen Depuis la Pointe de Kol, jusqu'a Valsterbon. Levée et Gravée Par Ordre du Roy

Paris [Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier], 1693. Engraved with full, period colour and gold embellishment. A magnificent 17th century sea chart of Copenhagen and surrounding regions.

This large scale, beautifully coloured coastal chart of the coast of Sjaelland (Zéland), Denmark and the south-western tip of Sweden comes from Le Neptune François, a lavish collection of charts produced collaboratively by Hubert Jaillot and Pierre Mortier. As Koeman discovered in his research on this work (see P. Mortier, Atlantes Neerlandici, Maritime Atlases, p. 423-4), Mortier re-engraved the plates after the original French prototype Neptune François by Charles Pène and others in a richly coloured version and added to the titles the words "Levée et Gravée par Ordre du Roy à Paris 1693. though they were in fact engraved, coloured and published in Amsterdam by Mortier. The Netherlands and France were engaged in the War of the Grand Alliance at this time. Pierre Mortier's grandparents were French refugees, who left France in about 1625 to live in Leiden. His parents settled in Amsterdam in 1661 or 1662. Mortier grew up in Amsterdam but lived in Paris from 1681 to about 1685 where he must have gotten into the book trade. Once he was in Amsterdam again he specialized in French books and maintained his relationships with Parisian publishers. Amsterdam was at this time the international marketplace for books, especially books forbidden by repressive governments. He established himself in the field of cartographical publishing by offering editions of French maps, primarily Sanson's and Jaillot's to a public tired of the great but dated Dutch offerings. Working on a scale larger than the typical Dutch folio map and providing the new insights of French geography, he was immensely successful. The charts in his version of Le Neptune François are outstanding examples of cartographical art, indeed, among the most beautiful printed sea charts ever made. This chart, which is oriented so that the west is at the top of the page, shows the north-eastern island of Denmark, Sjaelland on which is located Copenhagen and the neightboring shore of south-western Sweden, then called Schonen. There is an inset map showing Copenhagen in greater detail.

Koeman, M.Mor 1, #4.