This copy is copyright protected.
Copyright © 2024 Geographicus Rare Antique Maps
This item has been sold, but you can get on the Waitlist to be notified if another example becomes available, or purchase a digital scan.
1740 Homann Heirs / D'Anville Map of Florida, Mexico, and the West Indies
IndiaeOccidentalis-homannheirs-1740$475.00
Title
Mappa geographica, complectens I. Indiae Occidentalis partem mediam circum Panamensem II. Ipsumq. isthmum III. Ichnographiam praecipuorum locorum et portuum ad has terras pertinentium. / Carte des Isles de L'Amerique et Deplusieurs Pays de Terre Ferme situes su devant de ces Isles et autour de Golfe de Mexique.
1740 (dated) 23 x 19.25 in (58.42 x 48.895 cm) 1 : 10000000
1740 (dated) 23 x 19.25 in (58.42 x 48.895 cm) 1 : 10000000
Description
This is a 1740 Homann Heirs map of Florida, the West Indies, and Central America, published to highlight the major theater of conflict during the War of Jenkins' Ear. It is based upon the cartography of Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, but features several relevant maps compiled into a single sheet.
A Closer Look
The central map, attributed to D'Anville's 1731 work (one of the most state-of-the-art maps of the region then available), depicts the West Indies from Mexico to the Lesser Antilles including the totality of Florida, parts of Carolina, and parts of northern South America. Southern Florida, in an attempted rendering of the Everglades, appears as a series of lakes and islands connected by narrow canals. New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi are illustrated with relative accuracy, as are Mexico and the West India Islands. Territories throughout the region are color coded according to which colonial powers ruled them.Insets
Five smaller maps occupy the portions of the sheet above and below the central map. Those along the top depict the Bay and Isthmus of Panama at top left and an excellent depiction of the port of St. Augustine, Florida at top right, which is one of the earliest obtainable depictions of a harbor in Florida. The insets along the bottom border include, from bottom left, an inset plan of the city and harbor of Veracruz, Mexico, a splendid view of Mexico City, Mexico, at center, and a plan of the city and harbor of San-Domingo in the bottom right. The top center is adorned by a marvelous floral title cartouche depicting two Amerindians wearing elaborate feather headdresses and holding serrated spears.The War of Jenkins' Ear
The War of Jenkins' Ear (October 22, 1739 - October 18, 1748) was fought between Britain and Spain and is known in Spain as the Guerra del Asiento. Fought over trade (slave trade), the stated cause of war was that Spain considering withdrawing from the 'lucrative' asiento signed between the two countries granting Britain limited trading rights in Spanish America. It became known as the War of Jenkins' Ear over one hundred years after the fighting began when historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle referred to the war by that name in is 1859 work History of Friedrich II. Robert Jenkins was the captain of the British brig Rebecca which the Spanish 'coast guard' boarded in 1731 in the Caribbean on suspicion of smuggling. The Spanish commander cut off Jenkins' left ear during the incident. The event drew widespread British attention and ire in 1738 as an 'insult to British honor' and a cause for war. The British and Spanish fought in the Caribbean from 1739 through 1742, when the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748) demanded Spanish and British attention and the desire to fight in the Caribbean waned. The War of Jenkins' Ear ended with the same treaty that ended the War of the Austrian Succession, the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.Publication History and Census
This map was compiled and published by Homann Heirs in 1740. It is well represented in institutional collections.CartographerS
Homann Heirs (1730 - 1848) were a map publishing house based in Nurenburg, Germany, in the middle to late 18th century. After the great mapmaker Johann Baptist Homann's (1664 - 1724) death in 1724, management of the firm passed to his son Johann Christoph Homann (1703 - 1730). J. C. Homann, perhaps realizing that he would not long survive his father, stipulated in his will that the company would be inherited by his two head managers, Johann Georg Ebersberger (1695 - 1760) and Johann Michael Franz (1700 - 1761), and that it would publish only under the name 'Homann Heirs'. This designation, in various forms (Homannsche Heirs, Heritiers de Homann, Lat Homannianos Herod, Homannschen Erben, etc..) appears on maps from about 1731 onwards. The firm continued to publish maps in ever diminishing quantities until the death of its last owner, Christoph Franz Fembo (1781 - 1848). More by this mapmaker...
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697 - 1782) was perhaps the most important and prolific cartographer of the 18th century. D'Anville's passion for cartography manifested during his school years when he amused himself by composing maps for Latin texts. There is a preserved manuscript dating to 1712, Graecia Vetus, which may be his earliest surviving map - he was only 15 when he drew it. He would retain an interest in the cartography of antiquity throughout his long career and published numerous atlases to focusing on the ancient world. At twenty-two D'Anville, sponsored by the Duke of Orleans, was appointed Geographer to the King of France. As both a cartographer and a geographer, he instituted a reform in the general practice of cartography. Unlike most period cartographers, D'Anville did not rely exclusively on earlier maps to inform his work, rather he based his maps on intense study and research. His maps were thus the most accurate and comprehensive of his period - truly the first modern maps. Thomas Basset and Philip Porter write: "It was because of D'Anville's resolve to depict only those features which could be proven to be true that his maps are often said to represent a scientific reformation in cartography." (The Journal of African History, Vol. 32, No. 3 (1991), pp. 367-413). In 1754, when D'Anville turned 57 and had reached the height of his career, he was elected to the Academie des Inscriptions. Later, at 76, following the death of Philippe Buache, D'Anville was appointed to both of the coveted positions Buache held: Premier Geographe du Roi, and Adjoint-Geographer of the Academie des Sciences. During his long career D'Anville published some 211 maps as well as 78 treatises on geography. D'Anville's vast reference library, consisting of over 9000 volumes, was acquired by the French government in 1779 and became the basis of the Depot Geographique - though D'Anville retained physical possession his death in 1782. Remarkably almost all of D'Anville's maps were produced by his own hand. His published maps, most of which were engraved by Guillaume de la Haye, are known to be near exact reproductions of D'Anville' manuscripts. The borders as well as the decorative cartouche work present on many of his maps were produced by his brother Hubert-Francois Bourguignon Gravelot. The work of D'Anville thus marked a transitional point in the history of cartography and opened the way to the maps of English cartographers Cary, Thomson and Pinkerton in the early 19th century. Learn More...
Condition
Very good.
References
Kapp, Kit S., 'The Early Maps of Panama up to 1865', Map Collectors Circle, Issue 73, no. 58. Lowery, Woodbury, The Lowery Collection: A Descriptive List of Maps of the Spanish Possessions within the Present Limits of the United States, 1502 - 1820, 360.