Planiglobii Terres Tris Mappa Universalis. / Mappe-Monde qui Represente les Deux Hemispheres Favoir

Large c.18th double-hemisphere  German world map compiled by J.M. Haas, a professor of mathematics at Wittenburg and printed by the Homanns.

This is the early issue of the map which is printed prior to the addition of;  ‘Avec Priv de S. Maj. Imper.’ and the addition of the coast line on the north west coast of America and lacking Bering’s and Tschirikow’s discoveries of 1741. This map is larger than the later edition which measures 450mm x 530mm from the printed black border.

The map is superbly decorated with a pair of elaborate title cartouches at top, one in Latin and the other in French. Between the hemispheres, two circular insets show the world from the North and South Poles and four more circular diagrams feature along the bottom. Two sphere obliques appear in the corners, one showing the world centred on Nuremberg where Homann died in 1724 and the other showing it’s antipode. The two smaller circles are solar diagrams. The Latin title cartouche in the top left corner is decorated with the figure of Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, the god and goddess of the sea. He is shown blowing on his conch shell which he used to calm and raise the ocean waves and to his left is his sea horse. The right title cartouche is a festoon, decorated with animals, a parrot and crowns.

The cartography of Australia and New Zealand is shown according to the discoveries made by Abel Tasman on his first and second voyages 1642-44. Some of the earlier Dutch discoveries included are those of Hartog 1616, the van Leeuwin 1619, Nuyts 1627, de Wit 1628 and Tasman 1642-44. The northwest coast of America is uncharted and California is shown as a peninsula. An excellent example of the state of contemporary eighteenth-century knowledge in Europe prior to the great voyages of discovery made by the British and French. Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724) was the most important German cartographer of the eighteenth century. In 1715, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles the VI, appointed him Imperial Cartographer and in the same year he was also appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Upon his death, the business passed to his son, Johann Christolph, and after 1730 the business was continued as Homann Heirs until 1848.

From: Homan, J.B. Grosser Atlas über die gantze Welt. Nuremberg

References:
Moreland & Bannister: Antique Maps. London. 1995:  pp. 84-85.
Phillips, P. A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress. Washington 1973:  586.
Tooley, R. Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers 1979:  p. 27.

Collections:
David Rumsey Collection: List No: 12138.015
Met Museum New York: Accession Number: 53.685.162
Royal Collection Trust UK: RCIN 1046735
State Library New South Wales: Record Identifier 74VveJ8kDEeX