1870 Neueste Komische Karte Von Europa Fur Das Jahr 1870
By: J. Schwegerle
Date: 1870 (Published) Augsburg
Dimensions: 12.5 x 20.75 inches (31.75 x 52.7 cm)
This map is a decorative and amusing curiosity, with each European country represented in caricature form depicting its then-current military and political status.
The map is very similar to one published in the same year by French caricaturist Paul Hadol, but in German rather than French. The Ottoman Empire is shown as a woman smoking a pipe in Asia Minor and as a yawning Turk in Europe, Russia is depicted as a boogeyman with a large following of wolves. Each country is characterized in a few words in text located below the map. The urge to anthropomorphize can be traced to mapmaking’s early days as is demonstrated by the fourteenth century maps of Opicinus de Canistris.
In the sixteenth century Sebastian Munster famously depicted Europe as a queen at the time Elizabeth I was on the throne. Countless anthropomorphic and zoomorphic maps have been published through the centuries.
Condition: This map is in A condition. Original color lithograph.
Inventory #11318
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