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Description

Scarce map of the Western Hemisphere, published by EW Happel in Ulm.

Happel's map shows an incomplete New Zealand, California as an Island on the Briggs model, The straits of Anian and a very nascent and oddly shaped Mississippi River. The Rio Grande is still shown flowing into the Gulf of California. The Straits of Anian are named, with a very promising course for the Northwest Passage. Only a single massive Great Lake is shown, with a direct connection with the St. Lawrence River. South America is in an extra wide configuration.

The allegorical representations of the 4 continents are male figures, a very unusual departure from the normal convention of representing the continents in the female form.

Condition Description
Eberhard Werner Happel Biography

Eberhard Werner Happel (1647–1690) was a German author of scientific and historical works. The son of a reformist Lutheran minister, he studied law, mathematics, and natural sciences in Marburg, Germany, from the 1660s to 1680s, though due to financial issues he never finished his formal education. He also tutored aristocratic families in Hessen and Hamburg during this time. Around 1680 he devoted himself to writing, publishing several works of historical fiction. He also published several historical and scientific almanacs, the most famous of which was Historia Moderna Europae, which covered recent European political history and included detailed maps and engravings. His most famous scientific work was Gröste Denkwürdigkeiten der Welt: Oder, So genannte “relationes curiosae”, which contained one of the most important early discussions of oceanographic phenomena. In later years Happel continued to be a successful and widely read author. He died in Hamburg at age 42, survived by his wife, Margarita, and four children.