Stielers Hand-Atlas

  • Translation

Article ID B0247

Title

Stielers Hand-Atlas

Description

Stieler's Hand Atlas. 100 maps in copper engraving. With 162 subsidiary maps. Published by Justus Perthes' Geographical Institute in Gotha. Ninth edition, completely revised and redesigned.

Year

c. 1905

Artist

Perthes (1749-1816)

Johann Georg Justus Perthes ( 1749- 1816) was a German bookseller and publisher. Justus Perthes was the son of the Rudolstadt court physician Johann Justus Perthes. After training as a merchant, he obtained employment in the bookshop of Carl Wilhelm Ettinger in Gotha. Together with the latter and his later brother-in-law Friedrich Duerfeldt, he founded a company in 1778 to continue Ettinger's bookshop on his own. In September 1785, he founded Justus Perthes' Verlagsbuchhandlung, which from then on produced and distributed the Gothaische Genealogische Hofkalender, first published in 1763 and published by Ettinger, and its French edition, the Almanach de Gotha. Thanks to Perthes, the reference work soon known throughout Europe as "Der Gotha" was transformed from a calendar of the Enlightenment to an encyclopedia of the nobility with a diplomatic-statistical state handbook. In 1815, Perthes, together with the cartographers Adolf Stieler and Christian Gottlieb Reichard, planned the publication of an atlas, which was to be distinguished by "convenient format, the greatest possible accuracy, clarity and completeness, yet practical selection, uniformity of projection and scale, beautiful paper, good printing, careful illumination, and a reasonable price" and expand the publisher's program. In 1816, the year of Perthes' death, the first edition of Stieler's Hand-Atlas was published, which established the worldwide reputation of Justus Perthes' Geographical (Publishing) Institute Gotha - which only came into being after Perthes' death.

Historical Description

Stieler's Hand-Atlas, or fully titled Hand-Atlas über alle Theile der Erde und über das Weltgebäude, was a widely distributed German atlas initiated by Adolf Stieler (1775-1836). Published by Justus Perthes in Gotha, it appeared in ten revisions from 1816 to 1944. With its continuous expansion and improvement in craftsmanship, the sixth edition in particular became famous for its consistently high quality and unsurpassed relief illustrations. The centennial edition is considered the most comprehensive atlas of the modern era. The first edition by Stieler and Christian Gottlieb Reichard (1758-1837) was published in 1817, and the 50 maps were completed in four partial deliveries by 1823. It was expanded to 77 maps in eight supplement deliveries by 1835. The last supplement was edited by Heinrich Berghaus (1797-1884). After Stieler's death, Johann Friedrich von Stülpnagel (1786-1865) continued the work with the second (1845-1847) and third editions (1852-1854). It was not until the sixth edition (1871-1875, 90 maps) by August Petermann (1822-1878), Hermann Berghaus (1828-1890), and Carl Vogel, however, that the work achieved the scientific quality and unsurpassed relief illustrations that made Stieler's Hand Atlas so famous. Petermann, together with Bernhardt Perthes (1821-1857), brought great experience from the elaborate production of map supplements to Petermann's Geographische Mitteilungen, published since 1855. A seventh edition was published in 1879-1882; an eighth in 1888-1891 (95 maps each), both under the direction of Hermann Berghaus, Carl Vogel, and Hermann Habenicht (1844-1917). Although printing processes had largely switched to lithography by then, a number of maps in Stieler's Hand-Atlas continued to be produced as copperplate engravings on manual presses until the 1890s. Habenicht's ninth edition (1901-1905) reached 100 maps, double the number of the first edition, and was the first to be printed over cylinders, making it accessible to a wider audience due to its lower price. It is also considered the best edition, in which all cards reached the quality of Vogel's 1868 map. 16 maps from this were translated into English and converted to the Anglo-American system of measurement part of the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Place of Publication Gotha
Dimensions (cm)40 x 27 cm
ConditionBinding in hardcover with leather embossed in gold
Coloringcolored
TechniqueCopper print

Reproduction:

28.50 €

( A reproduction can be ordered individually on request. )