The third state of the official French sea chart of the Channel Islands and the nearby Cotentin peninsular published by the L’Imprimerie Royale in 1693 utilising recent scientific survey work. The engravers imprint lower right is erased. Two lines of longitude are added across the bottom marked from Tenerife and L’Isle de Fer, and a line of latitude is added by the right margin.The chart extends southwards to include the ‘Isles de Chausey’, the town of Granville in Normandy and Treguier in Brittany. It is from the ‘Neptune François’, one of the landmarks in the publication of sea atlases, a highly significant work. In 1662 Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-83), Minister of State to Louis XIV, made an initial attempt to have the coasts of France surveyed. The results were disappointing. Colbert tried again in 1670, this time having La Favolière survey the French coast south of the Loire River and Denis de La Voye northwards and through the English Channel.A decade later at the behest of the Académie des Sciences and Jean Dominique Cassini (1625-1712), the astronomers Jean Picard and Philippe de La Hire surveyed the country making astronomical observations of latitude and longitude. It was the results of their work that lost Louis XIV more territory than he had won in wars. These two projects were combined to produce, with the encouragement of Cassini, ‘Le Neptune François’. “The minister of finance to Louis XIV took the initiative to give the French navy an important advantage over the British. In 1691, a royal privilege was granted to produce a sea chart atlas, ‘Le Neptune François’, engraved and printed on Mercator’s projection by royal-appointed engineers and surveyors” (Wardington Catalogue).One of its most innovative features was the laying down of safe channels on the charts along with all the usual hazards and soundings to be expected. Another tradition began with this atlas in that it used soundings based on the lowest tide. It was immediately counterfeited by Pieter Mortier in Amsterdam. Whilst the Dutch version sold well, the original French version didn’t. Its large size, use of Mercator’s projection which was not favoured by French sailors, and high price, meant that the work languished for sixty years. The French government collection of nautical charts became part of the Archives de la Marine in 1699. It was renamed as the Depot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine in 1720. In 1741 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772) became its de facto person in charge. He was one of the most important and prolific French cartographers of the mid-eighteenth century. With access to the latest navigational reports, he produced a great many maps and charts of excellent quality compiling atlases of sailing charts for military and official use as well as for commercial publication. A second edition of the ‘Neptune François’ appeared in 1753 under Bellin’s direction. The charts bore added lines of longitude and latitude. Provenance: private Jersey collection. Chapuis (2019); Pastoureau (1984) Neptune Français C no. 17; Pelletier (2019) ‘Jean Picard’, in ‘The History of Cartography’ vol. IV, pp. 1095-7.