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This map of Asia, published in 1805 by the Geographisches Institut in Weimar, was designed by C. G. Reichard, a noted German cartographer. The map represents a detailed and comprehensive view of the Asian continent, featuring borders delineated according to contemporary European colonial holdings in India and Southeast Asia. The color key on the map specifies the territorial control of various European powers in "Ostindien" (East Indies), including the English, Dutch, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Danish territories.
The map extends from the eastern edge of Europe to the islands of the Pacific, encompassing key geographic features such as the Himalayas, deserts of Central Asia, and maritime routes through Southeast Asia. Nations and empires such as the Ottoman Empire, Persia, China, and India are labeled, as well as many regional cities, rivers, and mountain ranges.
Christian Gottlieb Reichard (1758-1837) was a German cartographer. Reichard studied law in Leipzig and found work as a town clerk in Bad Lobenstein. He had great personal interest in geography, history, and cartography, hobbies which gained him more renown than law. However, even after he began making maps, he continued working his clerk job, which gave him the financial stability to support his family.
Reichard is best known for his work on his Atlas des Ganzen Erdkreises in der Central Projection (Atlas of the Whole World in the Central Projection) in 1803 and the Orbis terrarum antiquus (Atlas of the Ancient World) of 1824. He is also likely the first published cartographer to adopt the Albers conic projection, in his map Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-America, nach den sichersten Bestimmungen, neuesten Nachrichten und Charten, in der Alber’schen Projection entworfen, (The United States of North America, after the safest regulations, latest news and charts, designed in the Alberian projection), where he references the Albers projection by name.
Reichard’s work was known by his contemporaries as highly accurate, and in fact this descriptor still holds up today. This accuracy, along with his skill, made him very publishable, and he worked on a number of atlases with other cartographers, such as Steiler’s Handatlas. Reichard’s style is simple but includes great detail, making his maps both recognizable at a glance and engaging upon deeper study.
![Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the Interjacent Ports; Compiled Chiefly from Original Journals at the East India House, and from Journals and Observations made during Twenty-One Years Experience Navigation in Those Seas... Part First. [With:] ...Part Second.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/102206.jpg)
