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Striking example of Herman Moll's extraordinary 4-sheet map of the World on Mercator's projection, showing the routes of the explorers who had sailed in search of hte Northwest and Northeast Passages.

This spectacular map on Mercator's projection is one of the largest world maps ever produced for an atlas. The map shows the tracks of various explorers including Henry Hudson, Thomas James, Willem Barents and the circumnavigation of Woodes Rogers. Most of the Arctic is labelled "Parts Unknown," and the American West is largely conjectural, featuring California as an island. In Asia, "Iesso," or Hokkaido, is shown to be part of Siberia, and eastern Australia is not yet explorered.

The oceans within the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn feature highly detailed hydrological information, most notably the direction of ocean currents, gleaned from Moll's esteemed contemporary Sir Edmond Halley. The inset to the upper left of the map features a diminutive world map depicting numerous lines of the degrees of compass variation. These calculations are, in part, based on measurements taken by Woodes Rogers during his transit across the Pacific, his individual readings being noted on the general map. An elegant circular inset in the lower left of the map depicts the Arctic regions as seen from directly above the Pole. This magnificent composition is further accentuated by the large title cartouche, which features personifications of the Old and New Worlds, enlivened by the most virtuous engraving.

The present map was part of Herman Moll's A New and Compleat Atlas. Moll was the most important cartographer working in London during his era, a career that spanned over fifty years. Moll fled the turmoil of the Scanian Wars for London, and in 1678 is first recorded as working in London as an engraver for Moses Pitt on the production of the English Atlas. It was not long before Moll found himself as a charter member of London's most interesting social circle, which congregated at Jonathan's Coffee House at Number 20 Exchange Alley, Cornhill. It was at this establishment that speculators met to trade equities (most notoriously South Sea Company shares). Moll's coffeehouse circle included the scientist Robert Hooke, the archaeologist William Stuckley, the authors Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe, and the intellectually-gifted pirates William Dampier, Woodes Rogers and William Hacke. From these friends, Moll gained a great deal of privileged information that was later conveyed in his cartographic works, some appearing in the works of these same figures. Moll was highly astute, both politically and commercially, and he was consistently able to craft maps and atlases that appealed to the particular fancy of wealthy individual patrons, as well as the popular trends of the day. In many cases, his works are amongst the very finest maps of their subjects ever created with toponymy in the English language.