Black and white French sea chart in of Java Island with south-east Sumatra, Bali, Banca Island and the south coast of Borneo by the French hydrographer Jean-Baptiste d’Apres de Mannevillette.
Mannevillette captured the coastlines in exacting detail and features the characteristic rhumbline network or wind-rose network of charts from the 18th century. Additional details include hazards in the Strait of Sunda, prevailing winds, and possible routes for favorable voyages.
Jean-Baptiste D’Après de Mannevillette (1707 - 1780) was one of the most important hydrographers of the Enlightenment Era. He hailed from a minor, but well-connected, noble family and as a teenager apprenticed under the French Royal cartographer Guillaume De L’Isle. In 1728, he joined the Compagnie des Indes and travelled to China. During the voyage, he conducted astronomical observations that were radically better than those of his predecessors, and he corrected the geodetic coordinates of numerous places.
D’Après de Mannevillette was horrified by the severe inaccuracies that appeared upon many of the key charts that the French government and trading companies relied upon. Upon his return to France, he embarked upon a mega-project to completely redraw all of the key French charts for the Indian Ocean and Asian navigation, including the route to China, the Red Sea, the coasts of India, Malaya, the northern parts of Indonesia, Indochina and China.
D' Après de Mannevillette published this chart within a sea atlas entitled Le Neptune Oriental (Paris, 1745), which consisted 22 charts. The publication received rave reviews, as the excellent charts were highly valued for making practical navigation much easier and, in some cases, were even credited with saving lives.