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NEW CONCEPT IN ROUTE MAPPING, PRINTED ON SILK
[MAP - EUROPE - GERMANY]. NELL, Johann Peter. Neu-vermehrte Post-Charte durch gantz Teutschland nach Italien, Franckreich, Niederland, Preußen, Polen und Ungarn &c. = Postarum seu Veredariorum Stationes per Germaniam et Provincias Adiacentes.
Nürnberg, Johann Baptist Homann, [1714]. Engraved map (46.5 x 58 cm) on a scale of 1:2,500,000 and printed on silk. With the German title below right in a cartouche, above a key to various postal services and 2 scales; the Latin title across the head, outside the border; and a large cartouche above left with a dedication to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, and his coat of arms flanked by three putti, one of them riding a winged horse. The privilege "Cum Privilegio Sacræ Cæsareæ Majestatis" appears above right. In a contemporary tanned sheepskin slipcase, blind-tooled and lined with paste-paper in 3 colours.
| Orders and Information | € 1250 |
A very interesting road map covering the German States, Switzerland, the Low Countries and bordering lands, the only copy we have located that is printed on silk. The map was designed by the Austrian postmaster Johann Peter Nell to elucidate the extensive postal system in Central Europe during the early eighteenth century. Like most small-scale route maps, it enlarges the infrastructural network and uses special symbols to give the map user a good overview of the main postal and transportation routes and all possible alternatives. In developing a new map concept Nell makes a clear distinction between postal services by horse and by coach (Reittende and Fahrende, both over land), calculating the distances by posts that are marked as short crosslines upon the direct junction (1 post = 2 German miles = a 4 hour walk).
The map was first published at Brussels in 1709 (or at least with "inventa Anno 1709") by Eugene Henri Fricx. Johann Baptist Homann in Nürnberg published a second edition in 1714 (with the date in a chronogram held by one of the putti). For some reason there are two different but nearly identical plates for the "1714" Homann version. The present appears to be the earlier, for it retains the "inventa Anno 1709," omitted in the other. The two also differ in the form of some topographical names but most curiously in the form of the privilege: while the present one notes a privilege from the Holy Roman Emperor (Charles VI reigned from 1711 to 1740), the other version reads "Cum Privilegio Sacrae Caesareae ut et Reg. Mai. Polon." Neither Charles VI nor any other Holy Roman Emperor of this period was King of Poland, but the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII (reigned 1742 to 1745) was grandson of the Polish King John III (d. 1696), and his father had ambitions to unite the titles. The present map therefore appears to truely date from 1714 and that with the "et Reg. Mai. Polon." privilege perhaps from the period 1742 to 1745.
The fact that the present copy is printed on silk and kept in a leather-covered slip-case suggests it was made for and used by a traveller. The luxurious use of silk and tooled leather seems more likely to suggest a diplomat than a travelling salesman. With some small tears where the folds cross, but otherwise in very good condition and extremely well printed, with three green stripes along the head and foot edges of the silk, indicating the original edge of the bolt of cloth as it came from the loom. An innovative map of the mid-European postal and transport network
