An Old Map of Bali – How Bali looked in 1760.

This old map of Bali, made in 1760, is at first confusing.  That’s because  north is pointing downwards. Java is to the right and Lombok is to the left, the opposite way we normally think of them. There are two and a half compass roses.

The upper left corner has a banner cartouche, which says Das Eyland Baly oder Klein Java (The Island of Bali or Little Java). The top right hand corner has a drawing of a Balinese Royal Palace. It is unclear what the other drawing is – it does not look Balinese. The map shows detailed villages, mountains, rivers, and trees.

It was made by the celebrated French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 1772).

At the age of 18, in 1721, he was appointed chief cartographer to the French Navy, and produced many important maps  featuring Asia,  Canada and the French territories in North America, which were known all over Europe, giving France a leading role in European cartography.  

He was a member of the French intellectual group called the Philosophes and the Royal Society in London. He  was one of the Encyclopédistes, who were part of the Philosophes, who compiled the 35 volume Encyclopédie which was edited by Denis Diderot. Bellin contributed 994 articles.

It’s thought that the map was prepared for the Dutch edition of L’Histoire Générale des Voyages (15 volumes, 1746–1759) initiated by Antoine François Prévost d’Exiles (1697 – 1763), better known as Abbé Prévost, the French author and novelist.  He wrote the famous Manon Lescaut, published in 1731, which was  immediately banned in France, and has been made into seven films, three operas, two ballets and a musical. Abbé Prévost died suddenly, walking in the woods, of a ruptured aneurysm.

How Bali looks now: Maps of Bali are available on Murni’s online Shop here.

An Old Map of Bali – How Bali looked in 1760.