1739 Hase and Homann Heirs Map of Russia and Asia

This is a 1739 Johann Matthias Hase and Homann Heirs map of Russia and Asia. The map depicts the region from Denmark, Norway, and the Black Sea to Japan and the Pacific Ocean and from the Arctic Ocean to India. Two intriguing cartographic missteps are illustrated here. The first is the depiction of Novaya Zemlya. Today, we know Novaya Zemlya is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Russia, however here it is illustrated as a large peninsular protrusion. Evidently the southern coast of the islands had not yet been fully explored, thus Hase did not know that Navaya Zemlya was not connected to the mainland. Another landmass, ghosted in off the coast of Yeso, is labeled 'Terra Societatis Batavicæ'. Only the westernmost part of this region is illustrated, with the rest vanishing into the Pacific Ocean. This also was not an uncommon practice for cartographers during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries when they received information from explorer's reports, but it was inconclusive at best. Cartographers wanted to include the most up-to-date information, which meant that sometimes only a portion of a landmass would be included. Most likely the 'Terra Societatis Batavicæ' was one of the Kurile Islands that Maerten de Vries and Cornelis Jansz Coen charted during their 1643 expedition for the Dutch East Indiat Company. This is likely because the Straat de Vries is labeled just below the 'Terra Societatis Batavicæ', which was mapped by Vries and Coen. They were also the first European navigators to discover the forklike peninsulas of Sakhalin and map its coastline. Although, apparently the Castricum was mired in heavy fog as Vries and Coen attempted to explore these seas, leading to the inaccurate mapping of Hokkaido (Yeso) as a part of the Asian mainlain and not as a separate island.

A highly detailed map, myriad cities, towns, and villages are labeled, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Peking. The Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea are all illustrated, along with numerous rivers and lakes. The Volga, Ganges, and Yangtze Rivers are among the rivers illustrated. A decorative title cartouche is situated in the lower left corner, while a cartouche bearing the map's dedication occupies the upper left corner. A cartouche containing the map's scale is included in the lower right corner.

This map was created by Johann Matthias Hase and published by Homann Heirs in 1739.