James Cook

  • Translation

Article ID DKP0627

Title

James Cook

Description

A Portrait of James Cook. Captain James Cook, (1728–1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War, and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the Saint Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec. This helped bring Cook to the attention of the Admiralty and Royal Society. This notice came at a crucial moment in both Cook's career and the direction of British overseas exploration, and led to his commission in 1766 as commander of HM Bark Endeavour for the first of three Pacific voyages. In three voyages Cook sailed thousands of miles across largely uncharted areas of the globe. He mapped lands from New Zealand to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean in greater detail and on a scale not previously achieved. As he progressed on his voyages of discovery he surveyed and named features, and recorded islands and coastlines on European maps for the first time. He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions. Cook was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him.

Year

ca. 1855

Artist

Meyer (1796-1856)

Carl Joseph Meyer was a German publisher and founder of the Bibliographical Institute. The birth of life had inspired Meyer to own a personal publishing company. On August 1, 1826, the Bibliographical Institute in Gotha became interests. In 1826 he published the library of German classics (150 volumes). Shortly afterwards after a confirmed series of atlases. Meyer was one of the first publishers in Germany to regulate his books using the subscription process. Headquarters of the Bibliographical Institute in Hildburghausen 1828–1874 Meyer soon insists that the company in Gotha was too small for its rambling activities. He planned the actual publishing house to operate with a printing and bookbinding shop and property and after himself according to the following. The merchant Johann Erdmann Scheller from Hildburghausen, who had offered to be a partner, negotiated with the Duke of Saxony-Meiningen and his government. The Bibliographical Institute moved to Hildburghausen in December 1828 and moved into the last so-called Brunnquellsche Palais. Meyer moved the cabinet library and the miniature library of the German classics here. This is where the third edition of the cheapest classic books in the years 1848–1854 is a definite new edition, its political significance under the perception of the bourgeois-religious revolution of 1848/49 cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Place of Publication Hildburghausen
Dimensions (cm)14 x 8,5
ConditionVery good
Coloringcolored
TechniqueSteel engraving

Reproduction:

18.00 €

( A reproduction can be ordered individually on request. )