Routes des postes et des voitures pour les marchandises et pour les voyages par l'Empire dans les principaux etats de l'Europe.
[Post and carriage routes for goods and for travel through the Empire in the principal states of Europe]
Amsterdam: OTTENS, Reiner & Joshua, c. 1745
Size (neatline): 68.5 x 49.3 cm / 27.0 x 19.4 in
Size (sheet): 73.6 x 54.0 cm / 29.0 x 21.3 in
Technique: Copper engraving
Colour: Hand coloured
Verso: Blank
Condition: Very good
Highly detailed postal route map of Central Europe
Description
This striking map by the Ottens brothers shows postal and stagecoach service routes throughout the Holy Roman Empire, reaching from present-day Denmark and southern Sweden to northern Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia, and from eastern England and northwestern France to eastern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Beautifully engraved by what appears to be Jan Stemmers, the map bursts of topographical detail. Relief and vegetation are depicted pictorially, shoals are indicated, political divisions outlined, and countless towns and cities named, with the larger of them represented through symbols. The network of postal and stagecoach service routes is accentuated in orange-red colour.
At lower right of the map, a cartouche displays nine distance scales.
The imprint at the bottom of the map identifies the Ottens brothers as publishers of the map and advertises them as makers of all kinds of prints, maps, charts, and atlases.
A splendid example of an early thematic map.
Condition
Very good.
A crisp impression on watermarked paper, issued folding, with four vertical foldlines. Beautiful early colouring throughout. A few inconspicuous light stains. At bottom, some minor marginal tears, closed on verso with archival tape.
Item #: 02667
US $600.00