Antique Map of Cities in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces of China, 1755

Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 –1772) was a French hydrographer (official cartographer) and a geographer. While still a teenager he became the chief cartographer to the French Navy and later to the king of France. Bellin created a large number of maps for Antoine François Prévost's (L'Abbe Prevost) 'Histoire Generale des Voyages', which was a 25 volume publication focused on 17th and 18th century exploration.It was published in French, Dutch and German. He also contributed maps and articles to the 35-volume Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was part of the group called Philosophes, which included many of the great intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment, including Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu. Bellin died at Versailles in 1772.