NORTH AMERICA 1719

A fine reproduction map of North America. According to the newest and most exact observations, by Herman Moll Geographer. One of Herman Moll’s most famous maps often referred to as The Codfish Map. As an enhancement to his “Map of North America,” Moll engraved orthographic or plan views of ten bays in North America and the Caribbean in the lower left-hand corner of the map. Each bay was the location of a major port city and harbor. Five of the port cities were British (St. John’s, Boston, New York, Charleston, and Port Royal) and five were Spanish (Havana, Portobello, Vera Cruz, Cartagena, and Acapulco). These plan views did not resemble the views of port cities that Moll engraved on his map of the East Indies. The inset views on the North American map did not show structures or harbors scenes or ships. Moll engraved the insets in the style of navigational charts complete with numbers on some of the charts representing depth soundings in fathoms.

YEAR: circa 1719
CARTOGRAPHER: Herman Moll