1740 - '_BASIS GEOGRAPHIAE RECENTIORIS ASTRONOMICA '
Baroque period world map in double hemispheres showing the shapes of land masses exactly calculated from astronomical observations. Roundel vignettes show cherubs making the observations and the instruments used.

The continents are shown in outline form. In North America California as an Island and there is a hint of a possible Northwest Passage from Hudson Bay to the Strait of Anian.

In the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan is shown twice. Australia connected to New Guinea.

The lower part scenes including cherubs using a variety of contemporary instruments at an observatory. In the center, a solar projector is used to measure the eclipse of the sun in the spandrel directly above. On the right, longitude is being determined by observing the transit of the moons of Jupiter in the upper left corner. Shirley refers to this map as being 'neglected' and considers it "in advance of its time.

Fine condition with early hand colouring with central fold as issued. Blank on verso.

 Overall size approx 65cm x 54cm including the margins. 



Johann Baptist Homann (20th March 1664 - 1st July 1724) was a German engraver and cartographer, and the Imperial Geographer to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. In 1702 he opened a publishing house in Nuremberg, and his maps often make reference to his membership of the Prussian Royal Academy of Sciences and his imperial patronage. Upon his death, his maps passed to the Homann Heirs company and reprinted many times before the company closed in 1848.