Marine, Pavillons.
/vexillology/atlas/1769
About
Marine, Pavillons. is an engraved plate of maritime flags from the Recueil de planches of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert. It is headed T. VII. and Pl. XVIII. and contains twenty-eight numbered figures (52–79), continuing a multi-plate sequence of the flags of nations within the Marine section.
Unlike the hand-coloured plates elsewhere in this atlas, this is an uncoloured line engraving. Tinctures are given by heraldic hatching, and the figures carry nothing but their engraved numbers; each flag is named separately, in the volume's Explication des planches. The figure names below are therefore transcribed from that Explication rather than from the plate, and the facsimile pages they come from are cited in the references.
Source Catalogue
| Printed title | Marine, Pavillons. (engraved caption at foot). Headed T. VII. and Pl. XVIII.; the numeral 98 appears at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Collection date | c. 1769 (assigned). No date is engraved on the plate; this is the title-page date of the containing plate volume (see below). |
| Associated work | Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques, avec leur explication — sixième livraison ou septième volume (seventh plate volume of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert, corresponding to tome 24 of the whole work). |
| Publisher | Briasson and Le Breton, Paris, avec approbation et privilège du Roy |
| Creator of plate | An engraver's signature is present at lower right but has not yet been deciphered or identified. |
| Language | French |
| Format | Uncoloured copper-engraved plate; tinctures indicated by heraldic hatching |
| Physical extent | One engraved sheet; dimensions not yet recorded |
| Provenance | Not yet recorded |
| Contents | 28 numbered figures (52–79), a continuation of the flags-of-nations sequence: the volume's Marine contents list plates 17. & 17. bis as Pavillons des différentes nations and 18. & 18. bis as Suite des pavillons. |
| Explication | Figure names are printed in the volume's separate Explication text, not on the plate; the entries for figures 52–79 appear on pages 110–111 of the facsimile cited in the references. |
| Digital surrogate | Complete plate: JPEG, 1024 × 1535 pixels. Extracted figure panels: PNG (28). |
| Catalogue status | Preliminary. The engraver's mark, physical dimensions, provenance, and several figure identifications remain to be established. |
Editorial convention: Figure names are transcribed from the printed Explication because the plate itself prints only figure numbers. Historical spellings are retained as evidence of the source's terminology; modern identification and analysis will be added separately.
Dating
The plate volume's title page is dated 1769, and its bibliographic records (BnF, Internet Archive, ARTFL) agree on that year for this livraison. The plate itself is undated. The full plate series was issued in ten instalments bound as eleven volumes between 1762 and 1772; an earlier local designation of this item as c. 1772 reflected the series end date rather than this volume, and has been revised accordingly.
Index of Figures
The plate contains 28 figures, numbered 52–79. They are presented here in figure-number order; the engraved layout itself interleaves the four large figures (52, 61, 62, 70) with the smaller ones, so numeric order differs from the plate's spatial order. Each entry gives the Explication transcription, the figure number, and an English rendering in italics. Select any image to open the full-resolution extraction.
Identifications for figures marked provisional (63–69, 77, 79) are transcribed from the same Explication facsimile but have not yet received the same independent verification as the rest; they remain subject to revision.
Method and Next Stage
The index above records what is on the plate before interpreting any of it. Two tasks remain on the plate itself: the provisional identifications (figures 63–69, 77, 79) should be settled against the Explication facsimile, and the engraver's mark at lower right deciphered.
Several figures ask for study. Figure 55, the Scottish East Indies flag, gives a rising sun to a company that had stopped trading long before 1769. It and the unidentified company letters of figure 78 are noted on the East India Company ensign page; the English Company's own ensign does not appear on this plate at all. The quarterings of the Grand pavillon d'Angleterre (figure 52) can be dated heraldically. The three P's of figure 79 want explaining. As studies are finished they will move to standalone flag pages, on the pattern set by the 1863 plate.
Bibliographic References
- Marine, Pavillons., complete plate in the present collection; headings, caption, and figure numbers transcribed from the sheet.
- Wikisource facsimile and transcription, Explication page 110 (figures 52–61).
- Wikisource facsimile and transcription, Explication page 111 (figures 62–79).
- ARTFL Encyclopédie Project (University of Chicago), IIIF manifest for this plate — “MARINE | PLANCHE XVIII.”, tome 24, Paris: Le Breton, 1769.
- Internet Archive scan of the plate volume — title page and Marine contents table.
- BnF catalogue record for the plate volume (Paris, 1769, Briasson & Le Breton).
- BnF catalogue record for the plate series (ten livraisons in eleven volumes, 1762–1772).
© Encyclopaediae. Open educational reference project.