Description
Re-edition of Totius Americae Septentrionalis et Meridionalis Nuovissima Repræsentatio by Johann Baptist Homann (1663-1724), German cartographer, publisher and engraver who opened a publishing house at the age of 38, dealing with atlases and maps. He became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1707 and, a few years later, 1715, was appointed Imperial Cartographer by the Emperor Charles VI, an appointment which entailed the privilege of impressory, a kind of copyright that protects his works for a certain period of time. His major work, the Great Atlas of the World, is from 1716. After his death, which took place in 1724, the inheritance will pass to his children who will continue in their father’s line.
Made with the copper engraving technique, it consists of several sheets mounted on “detachable canvas” in order to improve conservation, facilitate readability and facilitate transport. There were various difficulties that the engravers of past centuries encountered in preparing the matrices with the engraving method. The execution times were very long and the work performed was not susceptible to corrections. Furthermore, the number of copies that could be made was limited, since the plates of wood and copper later, subjected to repeated crushing of the press, tended to deteriorate rapidly.
The support onto which the image is transferred is made from 100% pure cotton paper found at an ancient paper mill, which was already in operation when this work first saw the light. In order to recreate that charm that the works of the past know how to instill, the sheets manually and individually undergo an aging process based on strictly vegetable substances. This is followed by the anchoring of the paper on canvas, also in pure raw cotton, which undergoes, like the paper support, a skilful work of aging. The watercolor coloring gives the subject a polychrome vision of undoubted scenic effect. All this in order to create a product that, both for the materials used and for the technique used, recovers the beauty and historical-cultural value of the original.
