This map of Nicaragua and Costa Rica was drawn by the French cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin and published in 1764 as part of the Petit Atlas Maritime.
Bellin was for more than 50 years the hydrographer to the King of France and the engineer in charge of the institution that centralised all the cartographic production of the French navy. This position gave him privileged access to expedition reports and navigators' diaries, which explains the magnificent level of detail of his maps for the time.
This particular map shows the provinces of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which at the time were part of the Spanish Empire's Captaincy General of Guatemala.
An earlier version of this same map exists, published in 1753 as part of the Histoire Générale des Voyages by Abbé Prévost, which shows that Bellin reused part of his cartographic production in multiple works over the years.


