Nicolas BAILLEUL ("Bailleul le Jeune")
It is not exactly known when and where French cartographer Nicolas Bailleul, known as “Bailleul le Jeune” (i.e. “Bailleul the Younger”), was born and died, though his professional activity is documented between roughly 1725 and 1765. He was born into an established 18th-century dynasty of engravers, mapmakers, and publishers. Bailleul was the youngest son of Gaspard Bailleul, a prominent Parisian geographer and publisher, and worked alongside his elder siblings, François and Marie Bailleul. He received his foundational training within this family workshop, focusing heavily on the engraving of letters, inscriptions, and geographical drafts.
Bailleul’s significance in cartography lies in his capability to combine Enlightenment-era geographical speculation with high decorative artistry, often collaborating with the Daudet publishing house in Lyon to distribute his works. His cartographic style is distinguished by the inclusion of elaborate, text-heavy borders and extensive multi-vignette margins illustrating historical, classical, or biblical events. Geographically, his work captured a transitional period of discovery, famously incorporating speculative features like the mythical "Sea of the West" (Mer de l'Ouest) and early acknowledgments of Russian discoveries in Alaska. His key publications consist of a limited series of rare, large-scale maps issued in the 1750s, including L'Amerique Divisee en ses Principales Parties (1752), L'Afrique (1752), and the world map Nouvelle Mappe-Monde avec la Representation des Deux Emispheres Celestes (circa 1755).
Nicolas Bailleul le Jeune is remembered for creating rare, visually striking maps that serve as distinct historical artifacts of the intellectual debates, imperial rivalries, and geographic imaginations of mid-18th-century France.
