Hollandia Nova. Terra Australis. (New Holland/Australia. Southern Land. Bowen c1744

by Bowen, Emanuel

Rare, important antique map of Australia by Bowen, c1744. A Complete Map of the Southern Continent. Survey'd by Capt. Abel Tasman & depicted by Order of the East India Company in Holland in the Stadt House in Amsterdam. London, 1744.

This is the first English map showing only Australia.. Hollandia Nova (New Holland), named by Tasman in 1644; and for the first time ‘Southern Continent’ for Terra Australis (Australia was often shown as Terra Australis incognita – unknown Southern Land). Based on the earlier French map c1664 by Melchisedech Thevenot, English cartographer Emanuel Bowen (1693-1767) added the Tropic of Capricorn, rhumb lines and the correction of the 4th degree of latitude, but for some reason he omitted the 1642-1644 charting of the southern coast of the mainland and the northern coast of the island state of Tasmania by Abel Tasman.

Emanuel Bowen often added information about his maps, and in this case interesting comments on exploration at that time. Emanuel Bowen (1693/4-1767) was a map and print seller whose business flourished in London from 1714 to 1767. He was engraver to George II of England and also to Louis XV of France. In addition to Bowen’s own projects he engraved for magazines, books and other publications. His maps are some of the most accurate as well as the most attractive maps of the eighteenth century. Bowen incorporated blocks of text in many of the maps he engraved. Incorporating either personal (e.g. fishing comments) or explorers’ geographic comments, they also make his maps some of the most interesting of the period.

Approximately 48cm x 38cm (19 x 15 inches)