This copy is copyright protected.
Copyright © 2024 Geographicus Rare Antique Maps
1867 Hughes Map of Egypt and Germany in Antiquity
EgyptGermany-hughes-1867$100.00
Title
Arabia Petraea and Part of Egypt including the Delta. Germania Magna with the Provinces on the Upper Danube.
1867 (undated) 13 x 10 in (33.02 x 25.4 cm) 1 : 3380000
1867 (undated) 13 x 10 in (33.02 x 25.4 cm) 1 : 3380000
Description
This is an unusual 1867 map by William Hughes featuring Egypt and Germany in antiquity. Essentially two maps on a single sheet, the top map focuses on Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula. This map, centered on the Nile Valley, identifies the sites of ancient towns, villages, pyramids (including the Pyramids near Memphis) and lakes. It features both ancient and contemporary place names for each destination - an invaluable resource for scholars of antiquity. The map depicts the supposed course of the wandering of the Israelites following the Exodus, as they fled out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and subsequently spent the next forty years wandering in the Sinai before migrating into the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan River just north of the Dead Sea. Possibly this map's most interesting aspect is its presentation of the ancient Lake Moeris, now just a small lake called Birket Qarun, and the legendary 'Labyrinth' near modern day Hawara. The lost Labyrinth was described by many classical authors including Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus and Pliny. A sprawling megalithic complex designed by Imandes for the Pharoh Amenemhet III, the Labyrinth is believed to have contained thousands of rooms filled with hieroglyphs and ancient Egyptian sculptures. Several archeological surveys have been undertaken to unearth the labyrinth, but so far no findings have been confirmed.
The lower map features ancient Germany. The map covers the lands of the Germanic peoples prior to the fall of the Roman Empire from modern day Denmark to Switzerland and from Belgium to Poland. This particular map focuses on the regions of Germania Magna (Greater Germany) which resisted all attempts at Roman rule.
At the time, 'Germania' was a name given to the lands between the Alps and the Baltic Sea. The region was inhabited mainly by Germanic, but also Celtic, Baltic, Scythian, proto-Slavic peoples. This map identifies many of the old tribes, including the Quadi, Marcomanni, Suevi, Angli, Saxones, Chatti (Hessians), and several others. Caesar Augustus described the Germanic tribesmen north of the Roman Empire as extremely savage and a threat to Roman Gaul. His Roman Legions, led by Generals Germanicus and Tiberius, conquered Germania Magna to the River Elbe, and occupied it until the Romans were defeated at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in 9AD. The Romans withdrew, establishing the Rhine and the Danube Rivers as Germanic boundary of the Roman Empire.
Tacitus wrote in Germania in 98 BC:
The lower map features ancient Germany. The map covers the lands of the Germanic peoples prior to the fall of the Roman Empire from modern day Denmark to Switzerland and from Belgium to Poland. This particular map focuses on the regions of Germania Magna (Greater Germany) which resisted all attempts at Roman rule.
At the time, 'Germania' was a name given to the lands between the Alps and the Baltic Sea. The region was inhabited mainly by Germanic, but also Celtic, Baltic, Scythian, proto-Slavic peoples. This map identifies many of the old tribes, including the Quadi, Marcomanni, Suevi, Angli, Saxones, Chatti (Hessians), and several others. Caesar Augustus described the Germanic tribesmen north of the Roman Empire as extremely savage and a threat to Roman Gaul. His Roman Legions, led by Generals Germanicus and Tiberius, conquered Germania Magna to the River Elbe, and occupied it until the Romans were defeated at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in 9AD. The Romans withdrew, establishing the Rhine and the Danube Rivers as Germanic boundary of the Roman Empire.
Tacitus wrote in Germania in 98 BC:
…they affirm Germania to be a recent word, lately bestowed. For those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani. And thus by degrees the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an appellation at first occasioned by fear and conquest, they afterwards chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were universally called Germani .This map was created by William Hughes, printed by J. Bien and engraved by G.E. Sherman, for issued as plates 24 and 25 in Sheldon and Company's An Atlas of Classical Geography.
CartographerS
William Hughes (c. 1818 - May 21, 1876) was a cartographer, engraver, lithographer, printer, and publisher active in London during the middle part of the 19th century. Hughes enjoyed and long and varied cartographic career. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1838 and, from about 1840, taught geography and mapmaking at St. Johns College for Civil Engineers. He later taught the same at both Queens College and Kings College, London. For a time he was employed as a map librarian for the British Museum. Hughes began engraving maps around 1839 and worked with most of the prominent British map and atlas publishers of his era, including but not limited to Charles Knight, A. and C. Black, George Philip, William Cassell, and others. More by this mapmaker...
Julius (Julien) Bien (September 27, 1826 - December 21, 1909) was a German-Jewish lithographer and engraver based in New York City. Bien was born in Naumburg, Germany. He was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts, Cassell and at Städel's Institute, Frankfurt-am-Main. Following the suppression of the anti-autocratic German Revolutions of 1848, Bien, who participated in the pan-German movement, found himself out of favor in his home country and joined the mass German immigration to the United States. Bien can be found in New York as early as 1849. He established the New York Lithographing, Engraving & Printing Company in New York that focused on the emergent chromo-lithograph process - a method of printing color using lithographic plates. His work drew the attention of the U.S. Government Printing Office which contracted him to produce countless government maps and surveys, including the Pacific Railroad Surveys, the census, numerous coast surveys, and various maps relating to the American Civil War. Bien also issued several atlases both privately and in conjunction with a relation, Joseph Bien. At the height of his career Bien was elected president of the American Lithographers Association. After his death in 1909, Bien's firm was taken over by his son who promptly ran it into insolvency. The firm was sold to Sheldon Franklin, who, as part of the deal, retained the right to publish under the Julius Bien imprint. In addition to his work as a printer, Bien was active in the New York German Jewish community. He was director of the New York Hebrew Technical Institute, the New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum, and president of the B'nai B'rith Order. Learn More...
Sherman and Smith (fl. c. 1829 - 1855), sometimes working as Stiles, Sherman & Smith, were American engravers active in New York City during the middle part of the 19th century. The firm including John Calvin Smith (surveyor and engraver), George E. Sherman, and sometimes, Samuel Stiles. Their work primarily focused on government publications, including the maps and engravings prepared to illustrate the official records of the 1838-42 United States Exploring Expedition (U.S. Ex. Ex.), maps issued for the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, and various U.S. Coast Survey Charts. They also engraved privately for Thomas Bradford and John Disturnell, among others. Sherman and Smith maintained offices at the corner of Broadway and Liberty Street in New York City and were highly regarded as the finest cartographic engravers in the city. Their non-cartographic legacies include George Inness, who apprenticed with them for two years before going on to become a well regarding American landscape painter of the Hudson River School. Learn More...
Source
Sheldon and Company, An Atlas of Classical Geography constructed by William Hughes and edited by George Long, (New York) 1867.
Condition
Very good. Minor wear and toning along original centerfold.