EUROPEAN CONTINENT 1789 HOMANN HEIRS & HAAS UNUSUAL ANTIQUE COPPER ENGRAVED MAP

Europa Secundum legitimas Projectionis Stereographicae regulas et juxta recentissimas observationes aeque ac relationes adhibitis quoq veterum monumentorum subsidiis descripta et in partes suas methodicas X divisa a Ioh. Matth. Hasio Math. P. P. O. edita Curis Homannianorum Heredum A. MDCCXXXXIII Denuo emendata 1789 / L'Europe, dessinee suivant les Regles le plus precises d'une nouvelle Projection Stereographique, tiree des Observations et des Relations les plus modernes et appuyee en divers endroits des Monumens antiques, dressee et divisee methodiquement par Iean Mattias Has Profess. Ordin des Mathematiques: Publiee par les Heritiers d'Homann L'An 1743 avec Privil Imperial et augmenté 1789. 

Description: Striking and highly detailed fine unusual 1789 revised edition of the 1743 Homann Heirs's copper engraved map of the map of Europe. Depicts all of Europe including Iceland and parts of North Africa and Asia. Notes cities, towns, villages, rivers, lakes, reliefs and islands. Elaborate title cartouche in the upper left quadrant features Europa, an angel, numerous crowns representing the royal houses of Europe, three children and several horses. Alternative title in French in top margin and a frame-style mileage scales cartouche complete the map.

Date: 1789 ( dated )

Dimension: Map size approx.: cm 54,8 x 50,1

Condition: Very strong and dark impression. Map sticked on paper on the verso. Map old original colored. Small margi. Small foxing and browning. Small tears. Minor loosing at the lower margin. Small waterstains. Map folded. Conditions are as you can see in the images. 

Mapmakers: Johann Baptist Homann (March 20, 1664 - July 1, 1724) was the most prominent and prolific map publisher of the 18th century. Homann was born in Oberkammlach, a small town near Kammlach, Bavaria, Germany. As a young man Homann studied in a Jesuit school and nursed ambitions of becoming a Dominican priest before converting to Protestantism in 1687. Following his conversion, Homann moved to Nuremberg and found employment as a notary. Around 1693 Homan briefly relocated to Vienna, where he lived and studied printing and copper plate engraving until 1695. Afterwards he returned to Nuremberg where, in 1702, he founded the commercial publishing firm that would bear his name. In the next five years Homann produced hundreds of maps and developed a distinctive style characterized by heavy detailed engraving, elaborate allegorical cartouche work, and vivid hand color. The Homann firm, due to the lower cost of printing in Germany, was able to undercut the dominant French and Dutch publishing houses while matching the diversity and quality of their output. By 1715 Homann's rising star caught the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the VI, who appointed him Imperial Cartographer. In the same year he was also appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Homann's prestigious title came with a number of important advantages including access to the most up to date cartographic information as well as the "Privilege". The Privilege was a type of early copyright offered to a few individuals by the Holy Roman Emperor. Though not as sophisticated as modern copyright legislation, the Privilege did offer a kind of limited protection for several years. Most all J. B. Homann maps printed between 1715 and 1730 bear the inscription "Cum Priviligio" or some variation. Following Homann's death in 1726, the 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 and Johann Michael Franz, 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 in 1848.

Johann Matthias (Matyhias) Haas (Hasio, Haase) (Latinized as Johannes Hasius) (January 14, 1684 - September 24, 1742) was a German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer. Haas was born in Augsburg but is known to have held academic positions in Nuremburg, Leipzig and Wittenberg, where he was a professor of mathematics. He produced several maps for the Homann Heirs firm in addition to several publications of his own. Today is memorialized by a crater on the Moon - Hase Crater.