Moll, Herman

A New and Correct Map of the World, Laid Down According to the Newest Discoveries, and From the Most Exact Observations. London: H. Moll, D. Midwinter, T. Bowles, P. Overton, [dated 1719, but circa 1730]

Copper-engraved map, on four joined ꩲsheets (sheet size: 635 x 1,029 mm). Period outline color; marginal foxing, re-margined at left and right, reinforced center fold, repaired tear bottom at margin, toning at center fold. 

A world map, depicting the globe in the early days of the Age of Enlightenment and European imperialism

This fascinating global perspectiv🧜e, featured in double-hemispheres, depicts the latest state of knowledge of the world in the first quarter of the eighteenth-century. The delineation of Europe, South America, and southern Asia is relatively sophisticated, while the depiction of regions further beyond suggests only fleeting exploration or outright speculation. The majority of the Arctic is labelled "Parts Unknown," and the American West is largely conjectural, featuring California as an island, arguably the most beloved of cartographic misconceptions. Lands depicted to the east of the Spice Islands are scarcely contemplated, "Iesso," or Hokkaido, is shown to be part of Siberia, and, decades before the voyages of James Cook, eastern Australia is left as a complete enigma. 

The present map was intended to satiate the intense English interest in maritime exploration and commerce. The oceans within the Tropic🦹s of Cancer and Capricorn feature highly detailed hydrological information, most notably the direction of the ocean currents, which Moll ꦅgleaned from his contemporary, Sir Edmond Halley. Evincing the scientific curiosity of the Enlightenment, each corner of the map features very detailed astronomical diagrams.

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. 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 Willi♉am Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in𒁏 the works of these same figures. 

REFERENCE

Shirley, Maps in the Atlases of the British Library I, T.Moll-4b, 2