Americae Mappa generalis

Title

Americae Mappa generalis

Description

Map of the Americas with a decorative and allegorical figure cartouche.

ca. 1746

Artist

Homann Erben (1724-1780)

Johann Babtiste Homann (1664-1724) was born in Oberkammlach, the Electorate of Bavaria. Although educated at a Jesuit school, and preparing for an ecclesiastical career, he eventually converted to Protestantism and from 1687 worked as a civil law notary in Nuremberg. He soon turned to engraving and cartography; in 1702 he founded his own publishing house. Homann acquired renown as a leading German cartographer, and in 1715 was appointed Imperial Geographer by Emperor Charles VI. Giving such privileges to individuals was an added right that the Holy Roman Emperor enjoyed. In the same year he was also named a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Of particular significance to cartography were the imperial printing privileges (Latin: privilegia impressoria). These protected for a time the authors in all scientific fields such as printers, copper engravers, map makers and publishers. They were also very important as a recommendation for potential customers. In 1716 Homann published his masterpiece Grosser Atlas ueber die ganze Welt (Grand Atlas of all the World). Numerous maps were drawn up in cooperation with the engraver Christoph Weigel the Elder, who also published Siebmachers Wappenbuch. Homann died in Nuremberg. He was succeeded by the Homann heirs company, which was in business until 1848. The company was known as Homann Erben, Homanniani Heredes, or Heritiers de Homann abroad.

Historical Description

Under the discovery of Americans, the first sighting of the continent by seafarers from the global civilization space. It is known that as early as the year 1000 Grænlendingar - under Leif Eriksson - belonged to the ground, Christopher Columbus gilded Americans as explorers, since only after his discovery of the Caribbean on October 12, 1492 did exploration and perception of the landmass continent begin, this date has marked a turning point in human history. This will be the first European, the American mainland in modern administration, Giovanni Caboto rights, even if it is a question that Didrik Pining and João Vaz Corte-Real raised. America was only recognized as a separate continent by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci in 1507 and in the old year by Martin Waldseemüller according to this as America guidelines. According to initial knowledge, Leif Eriksson was the first European to enter mainland America around the year 1000. Some of the “Vinland Sagas”, which report on the discovery trips of the Grænlendingar, give the distinction between the coastal sections in Helluland, Markland and Vinland. The assignment of these areas is the preservation and reaching from Baffin Island and Labrador to Nova Scotia or Massachusetts. Christopher Columbus tries on America trying to turn India (across East Asia) by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. At the turn of 1487/88, the Portuguese Bartolomeu Diaz was the first European to sail around the southern tip of Africa; the further route to India was unexplored until 1498. The first cartel players like Martin Waldseemüller assigned the newly developed sections of the Atlantic coast to Americans a new continent "America", before the first proof was given that War was that America is a continent. He believes this on September 25, 1513, at eleven o'clock in the morning, Vasco Núñez de Balboa after a loss-making expedition through Panama, as well as being the first European to see the Pacific from the good mainland. Amerigo Vespucci had already postulated the continent properties before him, he changed Americans by the observation-clear peculiarities of fauna and flora. Amerigo Vespucci interests that he had already been in Mexico in June 1497. He was possibly the first Christian European to enter the double continent. Martin Waldseemüller, who referred to Vespucci and the mysterious Caveri card, already had personal ideas of Central America and his own resistance to the ocean.