Maps > Europe(88 items) > Germany (6 items)
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	COVENS & MORTIER Land-Charte Des Chur-Fürstenthums Brandenburg/ Nova Electoratus Brandenburgici Tabula, edita per I. P. Fr. von Gundling. Amsterdam: Cóvens & Mortier, after 1757. Engraved by G.P. Busch with period colour in outline. Collection stamp on verso. Image size (including text): 18 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 21 1/2 x 25 3/4 inches. Jean (Johannes) Covens and Corneille (Cornelius) Mortier were brothers-in-law, who carried on the book publishing business established by Pierre Mortier in Amsterdam in 1685. The elder Mortier died in 1711, his wife contined the firm until she died in 1719. In 1721, Covens and Mortier formed a partnership, Covens having married Agatha Mortier in the same year. Pierre Mortier's house owed much of its success to his access to French publishers and publications in which he collaborated or re-issued. Covens and Mortier contined in this way publishing enlarged editions of Sanson, Jaillot and De L'Isle, as well as some of the later Dutch cartographical masters:De Wit and Allard, and of course Pierre Mortier. This map of the electorate of Brandenburg is based on a map by von Gundling (1673-1731), who produced an atlas of the region. It is a detailed map that includes the post roads, clusters of trees to indicate forests, notations for cloisters and universities. It has a beautifully engraved and intricate cartouche celebrating the Hohenzollern family, who having been the Electors of Brandenburg were to become the Kings of Prussia, beginning with Frederick I in 1701. Koeman C&M #58 #11157$400.00
	DE L'ISLE, Guillaume/ Covens & Mortier [Swabia, Germany] Partie Septentrionale De La Souabe [and] Partie Meridionale De La Souabe Amsterdam: Cóvens & Mortier, [1742]. Engraved with period outline colour. Collection stamp on verso. Image size (including text): 19 x 24 1/2 inches. Sheet size: 21 1/2 x 24 3/4 inches. This attractive pair of maps of Swabia is from a Dutch edition of De L'Isle entitled, Atlas Nouveau, Contenant Toutes Les Parties Du Monde, Ou sont exactement Remarquées les Empires, Monarchies, Royaumes, Etats, Republiques &c. Par Guillaume de l'Isle. Premier Géographe de sa Majesté. It was published by Covens and Mortier, brothers-in-law who continued the firm established by Pierre Mortier. Guillaume de l'Isle (1675-1726) was son of a cartographer and a pupil of Jean Dominique Cassini, who among other important contributions, aligned the study of astronomy to the study of geography. Under Cassini's direction, observations were made from locations all over the world that enabled longitudinal calculations to be made with much greater accuracy. De l'Isle carried on this exacting work with remarkable dedication and integrity, constantly revising and improving his maps. While precision was his primary goal, his maps are invariably elegant and attractive. This pair of maps form at large, detailed view of Swabia, one of the ten circles of the Holy Roman Empire and containing some of the historically most interesting and culturally rich parts of Germany. The region includes towns prosperous and important in the Northern Renaissance : Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, and others, the Necker and Danube Rivers and the Bodensee at the border with Switzerland. Koeman, C & M 7, #54 & #55 #11113$650.00
	LAURIE & WHITTLE (Pub.) A New Map of the Electorate of Bavaria, Comprehending the Dutchy of Bavaria Divided Into Upper and Lower Bavaria; The Upper Palatinate, The Palatineates or Dutcihes of Neuburg and Sulzbach, the Principality of Mindelheim &c. London: Laurie & Whittle, 1794. Engraved with period outline colour. Discolouration at centerfold. Some offsetting. Collection stamp on verso. Image size (including text): 19 x 20 inches. Sheet size: 21 1/2 x 29 inches. Laurie & Whittle were leading map publishers in London at the end of the 18th century, having acquired Robert Sayer's business in 1794. They provided the maps of the ever changing political boundaries during the Napoleonic era. The maps are characteristically precise and beautifully engraved. #11055$250.00
	MOLL, Herman (1654-1732) A New Map of Germany, Hungary, Transilvania & the Suisse Cantons, with many Remarks not extant in any map. According to ye newest and most Exact observations London: Moll, Midwinter, and Thomas Bowles , 1712 [but c. 1720]. Engraved with period outline colour. Browning at edges, some small marginal tears. Plate mark: 24 1/8 x 39 3/4 inches. Sheet size: 24 7/8 x 40 7/8 inches. Herman Moll clearly undertook the making of this map of Germany with great enthusiasm. With its portrait of the Diet, it suggests Germany, Austria, Hungary and Eastern Europe as far as the Ottoman Empire as a vast confederation, essentially a parliamentary Holy Roman Empire. The complex array of dominions is laid out on a large scale that is quite readable and generally correct.. Moll offers additional information about many regions by naming the resource primarily associated with it, for example, beer with Hamburg and salt with Trieste. Furthermore, he locates many copper, iron and silver mines. It is also an unabashedly English map of the continent in that it includes the route taken by the great general John Churchill (1650-1722) in the 1704 campaign during the War of the Spanish Succession, noting the battles with, of course, the Battle of Blenheim. The map is dedicated to Marlborough and portrays him on his horse crushing his adversaries. The inset view of "the General Diet of the Empire or Parliament..." endeavors to equate the Electoral College with the English Parliament. Over the doorway is a sign which reads, "The Liberty of Germany". "The Publick Good" and "the Comon Necessity" are two figures standing in the doorway. Within is a large gathering of ecclesiastical and secular princes as well as the nine Electors, the most recent addition to the Electorate being the Elector of Hanover, as of 1692. The Elector of Hanover at the time the map was made was to become George I of Great Britain. The present map was part of Herman Moll's magnificent folio work, a New and Compleat Atlas. Moll was the most important cartographer working in London during his era, a career that spanned over fifty years. His origins have been a source of great scholarly debate; however, the prevailing opinion suggests that he hailed from the Hanseatic port city of Bremen, Germany. Joining a number of his countrymen, he fled the turmoil of the Scanian Wars for London, and in 1678 is first recorded as working there as an engraver for Moses Pitt on the production of the English Atlas. It was not long before Moll found himself as a charter member of London's most interesting social circle, which congregated at Jonathan's Coffee House at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. It was at this establishment that speculators met to trade equities (most notoriously South Sea Company shares). Moll's coffeehouse circle included the scientist Robert Hooke, the archaeologist William Stuckley, the authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and the intellectually-gifted pirates William Dampier, Woodes Rogers and William Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in the works of these same figures. Moll was highly astute, both politically and commercially, and he was consistently able to craft maps and atlases that appealed to the particular fancy of wealthy individual patrons, as well as the popular trends of the day. In many cases, his works are amongst the very finest maps of their subjects ever created with toponymy in the English language. Furthermore, Moll is one of the few mapmakers who merits the term "Innovative". English mapmakers prior to Moll tried to imitate Dutch maps as nearly as possible, whereas Moll seems to have largely disregarded Dutch precedents. Removing all the Baroque stylistic elements, Moll replaced decoration with things that interested him about the places depicted, either pictorially or verbally. And he was right to do so. His notes and illustrations are more interesting than the putti and mythical gods of the late Dutch maps. #20631$1,200.00
	MOLL, Herman (1654-1732) [Germany] A New & Exact Map of the Electonate of Brunswick-Lunenburg and ye rest of ye Kings Dominion in Germany London: H. Moll, T. & J. Bowles, P. Overton & J. King, [circa 1730]. Copper-engraved map, with original outline colour, in excellent condition. Sheet size: 25 1/2 x 41 3/8 inches. A magnificent map celebrating the ascension of the Hanoverian Dynasty to the British throne, depicting the new King's German possessions Herman Moll first printed this map immediately after George I came to the throne of Great Britain. Queen Anne (Stuart) died without issue, and after the legislated exclusion of her close, but Catholic, relatives, her distant Protestant cousin, the Elector of Hanover, was deemed to be her legitimate heir. It is amusing to note that even though George I would rule from 1714 to 1728, it is said that he never learned to speak more than a few words of the "King's English." This map principally focuses on the large region of northern Germany that was ruled by George, one of the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. As depicted on the map, this realm included the great port of Hamburg, as well as the important cities of Lünenberg and Hanover, in addition to the university town of Göttingen. As noted in the lines and table in the lower-right of the map, this domain contained vast natural wealth, including numerous forests and 110 mines which yielded vast quantities of silver. A cartographic inset in the upper left details the Elector's newest possession, the Duchy of Saxon Lauwenberg. The inset to the upper left depicts the King's triumphal route though the North Sea from Hamburg to London. This grand composition is finished by a spectacular title cartouche featuring all manner of armaments, surmounted by the Royal coat of arms. The King was so delighted by Moll's finished manuscript, that he awarded the fellow German "a Gold Medal" as a "mark of his Royal Favour." The present map was part of Herman Moll's magnificent folio work, a New and Compleat Atlas. Moll was the most important cartographer working in London during his era, a career that spanned over fifty years. His origins have been a source of great scholarly debate; however, the prevailing opinion suggests that he hailed from the Hanseatic port city of Bremen, Germany. Joining a number of his countrymen, he fled the turmoil of the Scanian Wars for London, and in 1678 is first recorded as working there as an engraver for Moses Pitt on the production of the English Atlas. It was not long before Moll found himself as a charter member of London's most interesting social circle, which congregated at Jonathan's Coffee House at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. It was at this establishment that speculators met to trade equities (most notoriously South Sea Company shares). Moll's coffeehouse circle included the scientist Robert Hooke, the archaeologist William Stuckley, the authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and the intellectually-gifted pirates William Dampier, Woodes Rogers and William Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in the works of these same figures. Moll was highly astute, both politically and commercially, and he was consistently able to craft maps and atlases that appealed to the particular fancy of wealthy individual patrons, as well as the popular trends of the day. In many cases, his works are amongst the very finest maps of their subjects ever created with toponymy in the English language. Shirley, Maps in the Atlases of the British Library I, T.Moll-4b, 20; Cf. Reinhartz, The Cartographer and the Literati: Herman Moll and his Intellectual Circle #17926$1,750.00
	PTOLEMY, Claudius (90-168 A.D.) [Netherlands, Germany and Denmark] Quarta Europe Tabula [Rome: Petrus de Turre, 4 November 1490]. Copper-engraved map, in very good condition apart from a small marginal repair to the lower blank margin and a small rust-hole in the image area. Sheet size: 16 1/8 x 22 inches. A highly important and elegant map from the second edition of the 'Rome Ptolemy' This map is one of the earliest and most important printed maps of the region embracing the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, being one of the trapezoidal tabulae, or regional maps of the Classical world, contained in the 1490 Rome edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia.. This map is also fascinating as one of the last representations of the region to be published before triangulated surveys dramatically modified the depiction of the region in the sixteenth-century. The image takes in the vast area of 'Magna Germania', the heart of Europe, running north of the Alps and extending up into Scandinavia. As part of the 1490 'Rome Ptolemy', this map was printed from the same plates used for the first edition of 1478. R.A. Skelton stated that the 1490 edition was issued 'in response to the geographical curiosity aroused by the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean', with Bartholemew Dias's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 (Skelton, p.X), and appropriately Christopher Columbus heavily annotated a copy of the 1478 edition. The 'Rome Ptolemy' maps occupy an extremely important place in the history of early printing, and the story of their genesis is most fascinating. It begins with Conrad Swenheym, who is widely thought to have been present at the birth of printing while an apprentice of Johann Guttenberg. After Mainz was sacked in 1462, Swenheym fled south to Italy and arrived at the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco, likely at the suggestion of the great humanist and cartographer Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. In 1464-5, Swenheyn, in partnership with another German émigré, Arnold Pannartz, introduced the first printing press to Italy. Over the next few years, Pope Paul II was to become so enthusiastic about the new medium that he liquidated scriptoria and commissioned several newly established printers to publish vast quantities of religious and humanist texts. In 1467, Swenheym and Pannartz moved to Rome under the Pope's patronage where they printed over fifty books from their press at the Massimi Palace. Unfortunately, when the pope died in 1471, the new pontiff Sixtus IV disavowed the numerous unpaid orders of his predecessor. In this new climate, Swenheym and Pannartz elected to move away from mass printing and to rededicate their efforts to creating the first printed illustrated edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia, a work which was one of the greatest sensations of the Italian renaissance. By 1474 this immensely challenging endeavor was well under way, and Swenheym is recorded as having trained "mathematicians" to engrave maps on copper. They did, however have competition in the form of Taddeo Crivelli of Bologna, who was determined to be the first to the goal, even allegedly poaching one of Swenheym's employees who was privy to the project in Rome. Crivelli raced to complete the project, while Swenheym painstakingly guided the quality of his work, an endeavor slowed by the death of Pannartz in the plague of 1476. Crivelli's work was finally published on June 29th, 1477, making it the first printed Cosmography and the first ever set of engraved maps. Swenheym died in 1577, and the project was taken up by Arnold Buckinck, originally from Cologne, who saw the project to completion on October 10, 1478. While it may not have been the first printed edition, Rodney Shirley notes that 'The copper plates engraved at Rome ... [were] much superior in clarity and craftsmanship to those of the 1477 Bologna edition ... Many consider the Rome plates to be the finest Ptolemaic plates produced until Gerard Mercator engraved his classical world atlas in 1578' (Shirley p.3). Swenheym's close supervision of his engravers saw that 'The superior craftsmanship of the engraved maps in the Rome edition, by comparison with those of the [1477] Bologna edition, is conspicuous and arresting. The cleanliness and precision with which the geographical details are drawn; the skill with which the elements of the map are arranged according to their significance, and the sensitive use of the burin in working the plates - these qualities ... seem to point to the hand of an experienced master, perhaps from North Italy' (Skelton, p.VIII). A number of authorities have suggested a principal engraver from either Venice or Ferrara. Another aspect of these maps which stands out is the fine Roman letters used for the place names on the plates. In an apparently unique experiment, these letters were not engraved with a burin but punched into the printing plate using metal stamps or dies. These fine prints represent a milestone in the medium, being some of the earliest successful intaglio engravings, quite apart from their undeniable cartographic importance. While the artists who carried out Swenheym's vision will likely never be known, they produced the most important and artistically virtuous printed maps of the fifteenth-century. Upon the publication of the Rome Ptolemy, a frustrated Crivelli saw potential clients abandon his edition in favour of its superior rival. Petrus de Turre (Pietro de la Torre) purchased these same plates and on November 4th, 1490 first used them to print a second Rome edition, of which this map was a part. The plates had remained in excellent condition and the original sharpness and quality was preserved. This map remains one of the most historically important and visually striking images of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark available to collectors. Cf. BMC IV, p.133; Campbell, The Earliest Printed Maps, pp.131-133; Destombes, Catalogue des Cartes gravées au XVe siècle, 41(1); cf. Goff, P-1086; cf. Hain, 13541; Indice Generale, 8128; cf. Klebs, Incunabula, 812.7; cf. Proctor, 3966; cf. Sabin, Ptolemy, 66474; cf. Sander, 5976; Shirley, The Mapping of the World, 4; cf. Skelton, Claudius Ptolomaeus Cosmographia Rome 1478, p.XIII; cf. Stevens, Ptolemy's Geography, 42; cf. Stilwell, P-992 #18299$6,500.00
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