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 and Amsterdam 1693-1700. 3 vols. in one, atlas folio, 621 x 503 mm. (24 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.), publisher's mottled calf, covers with large central gilt Atlas medallion within gilt roll-tooled borders, armillary sphere tools at angles and in compartments of spine, worn and rubbed, joints cracked, old repairs to head and tail of spine, 11 charts in part 1 with small internal tears due to acidic brown ink, repaired fold breaks to large folding chart of the Gulf of Gascogne (part 1), 2 charts in part 3 with very small neat internal repairs, marginal tears or repairs to approximately 13 charts (occasionally affecting image), borders of 4 charts cropped, creasing to 4 charts or plates, occasional very light offsetting, some dust-soiling to extreme outer margins, a few minor marginal stains . FIRST EDITIONS (vols. 2 and 3 published concurrently in two issues, with Dutch and French text), 3 additional engraved titles (one repeated), 3 printed titles, the first two in red and black with engraved title vignettes, one engraved plate of nautical scales, one engraved plate of compass of the winds, 60 etched and engraved coastal charts, (one double-sheet folding chart, 11 half-sheets, the remainder full mapsheets), many with inset port and harbor views, 15 engraved plates of ships, and 12 plates of naval ensigns, ENGRAVED TITLES, TITLE VIGNETTES, CHARTS AND PLATES FULLY COLORED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, HEIGHTENED IN GOLD THROUGHOUT. Koeman IV, pp. 423-31; Phillips Atlases 517. Contents : Vol. 1) Le Neptune François... Paris: Hubert Jaillot 1693. Engraved allegorical title by Jan van Vianen 6 pp. letterpress, engraved table of comparative nautical scales, 3 plates of ships, 26 (of 29) full-sheet charts of northern and western Europe (mainly French coasts), engraved and printed by Pierre Mortier in Amsterdam for his partner H. Jaillot in Paris. Koeman M. Mor 1 (lacking Koeman nos. 10, 11 and 14). Vol. 2) Cartes Marines à l'Usage des Armées du Roy de la Grande Bretagne... gravées et recüeillies par le Sr. Romain de Hooghe. Amsterdam: Pierre Mortier 1693. Additional engraved allegorical title ("Atlas Maritime...") by Romein de Hooghe, dated 1693, printed title, 8 (of 9) engraved charts by de Hooghe, 3 half-sheet, the remainder full-sheet, of the French and English Channel coasts. Koeman M. Mor. 5 (lacking Koeman no. 9, folding chart of the Mediterranean, dated 1694). Vol. 3) Vervolg van de Neptunus, of Zee Atlas van de Niewe Zeekaarten [edited by N. P. d'Ablancourt]. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier 1693. Additional engraved title (as in vol. 2, coloring inferior and without gold highlighting), 6 pp. letterpress (the "Tafel der Kaarten" on p. 6 left blank, without pasted-down index), engraved compass of the winds, 12 ship plates, 12 ensign plates, 26 (of 37) charts, 8 half-sheet, the remainder full-sheet, of Africa (19 charts, of 20), Asia (3 charts, of 4) and the Americas (4 charts, of 10, including the Atlantic with northeastern coasts of South America and Africa, Central America, North America, East Coast from the Hudson to Labrador, and Canada). Koeman M. Mor. 8 (lacking Koeman nos. 1, 25, 27, 28, 30-31, 33-35). A FINELY COLORED COPY of one of the most beautiful of all maritime atlases. "The Neptune François and its second part Cartes Marines [prepared for the use of William III, who required accurate information for his war plans against France]... 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... In 1700, Mortier brought out a third volume with charts of the outer-European waters... Suite du Neptune François . Apart from the first volume which had a second edition in 1703, none of the atlases was republished. This magnifient work was intended more as a show-piece than something