page_title: Herman Moll
section_title: Work as an independent publisher
hierarchical_section_title: Herman Moll / Cartographic work / Work as an independent publisher
context_page_description: Herman Moll was a London cartographer, engraver, and publisher.
context_section_description: In 1701 he published A System of Geography, the first of his own publishing. Although it contained no fundamental changes in the presentation of his previous work, it helped him to assert himself as a freelance cartographer. Over the years, the work itself as well as individual maps were of influence on other publishers, as they were frequently copied and re-issued.
  In the years that followed he brought out several volumes including Fifty-six new and accurate maps of Great Britain, a book of maps of the British Isles.  Then came The Compleat Geographer which was an update to A System of Geography.  He issued forty-two monochrome maps designed without the usual text, as by not using his usual colours he could produce them at significantly less expense than comparable works, and went through many new editions.  In 1711 he began his Atlas Geographus, which appeared in monthly deliveries from 1711 to 1717, and eventually comprised five volumes. This included a full geographical representation of the world in colour maps and illustrations. Moll's subscribers. As with his earlier works, the Atlas Geographus was eagerly copied and imitated.
  In 1710 he began producing artfully crafted pocket globes. These were each a pair of globes, with the larger, hinged celestial globe encircled a smaller globe. On the latter he often included the route of Dampier's circumnavigation. These globes are very rare today.
  In 1715 Moll issued The World Described, a collection of thirty large, double-sided maps which saw numerous editions. In these maps Moll's skill as an engraver is particularly clear.  These were bound separately and then later sold in the form of atlases in a joint venture between a number of other publishers.
  The series included two of the most famous Moll maps: A new and exact map of the dominions of the King of Great Britain and To The Right Honorable John Lord Sommers...This Map of North America According To Ye Newest and Most Exact Observations.  These were distinctive for their elaborate cartouches and images, and are known respectively as the Beaver Map and the Codfish Map.  As with much of his work, Moll used these maps to publicize and support British policy and regional claims throughout the world.
  The Codfish Map shows in its cartouches a scene from the cod fisheries off Newfoundland. Since the beginning of the 16th century the cod fishery there was an important economic factor for the European colonial powers.  At the time of issue, the battle over fishing rights was one of the central points of contention in the North American policy of France and England. With its depiction of the processing of freshly caught cod for shipment to Europe, Moll highlighted for subscribers and viewers the importance of this sector for his native England.
  Moll labelled the Atlantic Ocean as the "Sea of the British Empire" and stressed the British claims to fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland. In a West India map from the same series, he wrote in the southwestern corner of Carolina the words "Spanish Fort Deserted" and "Good Ground". On many of its North American maps - including on the Beaver Map - he drew particular attention to major ports streets, because he knew that was a sufficient infrastructure detail, communicating that for the further expansion of English power it was very important.  
  Pritchard argues that the Beaver Map was "one of the first and most important cartographic documents relating to the ongoing dispute between France and Great Britain over boundaries separating their respective American colonies ... The map was the primary exponent of the British position during the period immediately following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713."
  His maps were also used by other powers to attempt support for their claims. One of Moll's maps of the island of Newfoundland, published in the 1680s, showed Pointe Riche, the southern limit of the French Shore. to be situated at 47°40' north latitude. In 1763 the French attempted to use this map to establish their claim to the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, arguing that Po
caption: A new map of the whole world with the trade winds (1736)
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