• Title : (Scandinavia, Iceland)
• Ref #:  93647
• Size: 33in x 24 1/2in (840mm x 615mm)
• Date : 1786
• Condition: (A+) Fine Condition

Description:
This large original copper-plate engraved antique map was published in the 1786 edition of Franz Anton Schraembl Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas after D Anville.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original
Colors used: - Yellow, green
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 33in x 24 1/2in (840mm x 615mm)
Plate size: - 28in x 22in (730mm x 560mm)
Margins: - Min 2in (50mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background:
Before the fifteenth century the people of Southern Europe had little geographical knowledge of the Scandinavian World except from sketchy detail shown in the Catalan Atlas (1375) and on a number of portolani embracing Denmark and the southern tip of Norway. It was not until 1427 that a manuscript map prepared about that time by Claudius Clavus (b.1388) a Dane who spent some time in Rome, made available to scholars a tolerable outline of the northern countries and Greenland. That was to remain the best map available for the rest of the century and it was used as the basis for maps of Scandinavia in early printed editions of Ptolemy. Others by Nicolaus Cusanus (1491) and Ehrhard Etzlaub (c. 1492) followed but, needless to say, these are extremely rare; even the later maps by Olaus Magnus and Marcus Jordan, where they have survived at all , are known only by a very few examples. In fact, apart from the rare appearance of an early Ptolemy map, the oldest of Scandinavia which a collector is likely to find are those of Munsters Cosmograhy first published in 1544. In the following centuries the few maps and charts complied in Scandinavia were usually published in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris or Nuremberg, the most important maps often being incorporated in the major Dutch, French & German Atlases. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)

Schraembl, Franz Anton 1751-1803
Schraembl was a Vienna based cartographer working in the later part of the 18th century. Schraembl was partnered with Joseph von Reilly. His great work, the Allgemeiner Grosser Atlas was started in 1786. This ambitious atlas was to be based upon only the most up-to-date cartographic information available. Schraembl pulled his maps from the work of explorers such as Cook, Roberts, and others. The atlas was finally finished in 1800 but, possibly restricted by its high production cost, enjoyed only relatively minimal circulation.