Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Novissima…
Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Novissima…
HOMANN, Johann Baptist

Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Novissima…

Norimbergae
[1720]
Size : 58 x 49,5 cm
Color : Contemporary colors
Condition : Satisfaisant
Technique : Copper engraving
Reference : 454-8
€925.00

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Description

The decorative map of America by Johann Baptiste Homann in period colors. The map is in second state, with the northwest coast of America labeled "Costa Terrae Borealis incognitae detecta a Dom: Ioanne de Gama navigante ex China in Novam Hispaniam". The map includes two compass roses, one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic; a title cartouche in the lower left corner and a cartouche describing the discovery of America that the European powers claimed in the upper left corner.

The map depicts North and South America and the West Indies. South America has been divided into Amazonum Regio, Terra Magellanica, Peru, Terra Firm, Caribana, Uraguay, Chile and Paraguay. North America includes Florida, Carolina, Louisiana, New England, Virginia, Maryland, California, New Britain, Canada and Greenland. California is shown here as a peninsula. It is shown as part of "Terra Esonis Incognita".

According to Eduard Van Ermen, this map illustrates a mixture of "strengths and weaknesses in the geographical knowledge of the New World in the early eighteenth century." For example, much of the eastern coast of North America, the entire West Indies, and the South American coasts were skillfully explored, allowing cartographers to gain accurate knowledge, as this map shows. However, little was known about California or the northwestern region of North America. Ermen points out that Homann shows his "hypothesis of the outline of the California coast with a shadow line." McLaughlin and Mayo note that California is based on Sanson's work. Tooley writes, however, that there are some additions such as the towns of S Isidoro, gigante, and NS de la Guadalupe (Tooley, "California as an Island," 129).

This map was originally published in Homann's "Atlas novus terrarium..." (1702-1750). Cummings 156; Morrison On the Map 27; Moreland and Bannister, 84; Tooley, 308

HOMANN, Johann Baptist

Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) was born in Kammlach. He was an engraver and cartographer. In 1702 he founded his own publishing house in Nuremberg. The maps and atlases published under his name became among the most influential of the 18th century. Around 1707, he became a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1715 he was appointed geographer to the Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire. He worked as an engraver for Funek, Jacob von Sandrart and Scherer. His works include the Atlas (1704), the Neuer Atlas (1707), the Grosser Atlas (1716) and the Atlas Methodicus (1719). After his death, his son, Johann Christoph, took over the business and continued to run the publishing house. After J. C.'s death, his heirs continued to run the publishing house as the Homann heirs, which lasted for almost a century after its foundation. Later works by Homann's heirs include Grosser Atlas (1731, 1737), Kleiner Atlas, Doppelmayer's Celestial Atlas (1742), Geographia Maior (1759) and Atlas Hommanianus (1762). Moreland and Bannister, 84; Tooley, 308