Collecting Antique Maps - Thematic Cartography

The range of thematic maps is just about unlimited and generally cover physical, political, economic and social aspects connected with a specific geographical area.  If geography and especially mountain ranges and forests are of interest to you then the map below by Heinrich Scherer is for you. Scherer’s world atlas, the Atlas Novus, first published in Munich between 1702 and 1710 and reissued in a second edition between 1730 and 1737, forms a singularly unusual, almost revolutionary work in terms of the development of European mapmaking at the beginning of the 18th Century. The Atlas comprised seven separate volumes entitled Geographia Naturalis, Geographia Hierarchica, Geographia Politica, Tabellae Geographicae, Atlas Marianus, Critica Quadrapartita, and Geographia Artificialis. Most of the some 180 maps appear to have been prepared between 1699 and 1700 and were engraved by Leonard Hecknaeur, Joseph Montelegre or Matthus Wolfgang, with each volume introduced by fine allegorical frontispieces by the same engravers . . .

Above:  Asien - Utriusque Tartariae, Europaeae et Asiatiae delinatio. Insularum Indicarum & Terre Australis. Kupferstich aus Scherer, Heinrich: Atlas Novus exhibens orbem terraqueum (Asien - Delineation of both Tartary, Europe and Asia. of the Indian Islands & Southern Land).Scherer takes thematic cartography one step further in the Geographia Politica and Geographia Naturalis. He produces maps that remove political boundaries, borders and place names, replacing them with the revolutionary concept for the period of showing the mountains and forests in physical relief with all of the major waterways and rivers systems clearly depicted. Details on Heinrich Scherer - Map of Asia