Isle des etats ou Staten Eyland/Isle Maurice/ Das mitternäüchtliche große Meer

Title

Isle des etats ou Staten Eyland/Isle Maurice/ Das mitternäüchtliche große Meer

Description

Map shows the islands to the north of Lapland and Russia.

ca. 1683

Artist

Mallet (1630-1706)

Alain Manesson Mallet (1630- 1706 ) was a French cartographer and engineer. He started his career as a soldier in the army of Louis XIV, became a Sergeant-Major in the artillery and an Inspector of Fortifications. He also served under the King of Portugal, before returning to France, and his appointment to the court of Louis XIV. His military engineering and mathematical background led to his position teaching mathematics at court. His major publications were Description de L'Univers (1683) in 5 volumes, and Les Travaux de Mars ou l'Art de la Guerre (1684) in 3 volumes. His Description de L'Universe contains a wide variety of information, including star maps, maps of the ancient and modern world, and a synopsis of the customs, religion and government of the many nations included in his text. It has been suggested that his background as a teacher led to his being concerned with entertaining his readers. This concern manifested itself in the charming harbor scenes and rural landscapes that he included beneath his description of astronomical concepts and diagrams. Mallet himself drew most of the figures that were engraved for this book.

Historical Description

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean (Arctic Ocean) north of Norway and the European part of Russia. It lies between the archipelagos of Spitsbergen (Norway) in the northwest, Franz Josef Land (Russia) in the north, Novaya Zemlya in the east and the mainland of northwest Russia and Scandinavia in the south. The largest city on the Barents Sea is Murmansk, which, like the former Finnish city of Pechenga, is home to a base of the Russian Northern Fleet. The main islands are Kolguev, Bear Island, Hopen.