Reduced map of the Philippines.

The nautical map published by France's Marine Department (Département de la Marine) and drawn by the geographer and cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703–72) is a key work in Philippine cartography.

Bellin's map shows the entire Philippine archipelago. There is a description underneath the cartouche with a summary of the islands' history and some text about the origins of the cartographic data. The text explains that Bellin referred to the works of Father Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696–1753), a Jesuit missionary who was appointed Professor of Civil and Canon Law at Colegio de Manila university in 1725. Murillo worked hard to compile the best geographic data about the archipelago and produce the first map of the Philippines. It was published in Manila in 1734, titled "Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas" (Hydrographic and Chorographic Map of the Philippines).

Murillo Velarde's chart can be considered the first scientific map of the period. In 1744, he published a reduced version: the "Mapa de las Islas Philipinas Hecho por el P. Pedro Murillo Velarde de la Compª de Jesús" (Map of the Philippines by Father Pedro Murillo Velarde of the Society of Jesus).

Comparing the two maps, it's clear that Bellin made an improvement by drawing the island of St. Jean to the northeast of Mindanao, which had already been included on previous charts but which Murillo did not map.