Plan de Barcelone Capitale de Catalogne.

Title

Plan de Barcelone Capitale de Catalogne.

Description

Plan of the city of Barcelona with compass rose and title cartouche. The (Mont Joui) Montjuich or Montjuïc is also shown, where various fortifications were located, including Montjuïc Castle from the 17th century. Engraved by Croisey.

c.

Artist

Bellin (1703-1772)

Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703 Paris -1772 Versailles) was a French cartographer, engineer-geographer, marine hydrographer. As a contributor to the Encyclopédie, he wrote more than a thousand articles on maritime topics. As a cartographer, Bellin distinguished himself primarily in the field of sea cartography. From 1721 he worked for the Dépot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine, from 1741 until his death as an engineer-hydrograph of the Navy. In 1753 his atlas Neptune français, which covered all the coasts of France, was published, and in 1756 the hydrography françoise covering all seas of the earth. In 1764 the five-volume Petit Atlas maritime was published, which Bellin prepared on the orders of the Minister of the Navy, Choiseul. In addition, he wrote a number of geographical works and with Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre la geographie (1769) a geographic textbook for teaching. His maps illustrated, among other things, Bougainville's work Voyage autour du monde, published in 1771. As a co-author of the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, Bellin wrote more than a thousand articles in the field of shipping and navy.

Historical Description

Barcelona's history began under various reigns. Romans, Visigoths and Moors and in 1137 under the crown of Aragon. The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon to Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the two royal families of Spain. This shifted the political center to Toledo and later, under the Habsburg Philip II, to Madrid, demoting the former crown of Aragon to a province. In addition, Barcelona, like many Spanish cities on the Mediterranean, suffered a huge decline in trade and loss of importance due to the discovery of America. From the mid-19th century, the city experienced a renewed economic boom and became a center of industrial development in Spain, bringing wealth and political influence back to the region.