Johann Baptist Homann

Johann Baptist Homann (Oberkammlach 1664 to Nuremberg 1724) founded his publishing house at Nuremberg in 1702 and made it, within a generation, the leading map publisher of the German lands. He was appointed Imperial Geographer in 1715 and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. His maps, engraved in a bold, clear style and coloured in the workshop, were sold singly and gathered into atlases of variable content; after his death the firm continued as Homann Heirs until 1848.

The four continents of Homann are the classic sheets of the firm. The map of America shows California as an island, following Sanson; the map of Africa carries one of the first extended notes on the sources of the Nile; the map of Asia is their companion. Each was re-engraved and reissued for decades, so that the state of the plate matters to the collector.

The Homann maps in our collection are early impressions, described with their state and colouring.