1744 Bowen Map of the Atlantic Ocean (including the West Indies, Europe, Africa, and North America)

A fine map of the Atlantic Ocean drawn by emmanuel Bowen in 1744. The map covers from the Arctic Ocean to South America and Africa's Slave Coast and from Cuba and Florida eastwards as far as England and Sardinia. Rhumb lines throughout allude to this map originals as a nautical chart. As such it offers little inland detail but copious notations of important ports and harbors along the coast, as well as, at top center, comments regarding the currents, trade winds, and other weather patterns. A track, including a miniature sailing ship, represents the most likely course of Columbus as he sailed to discover the New World.

And, yet, Bowen calls just this into question with a curious comment set just below the title cartouche:

Tho' Columbus is generally supposed to have been the first Discoverer of y New World, Yet there is great probability that Madoc a Prince of North Wales sailed from thence and landed on y Coast of Florida Anno 1170.

Madoc, also known as Madog ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, roughly three hundred years before the voyages of Columbus. The legend though quite ancient, became popular during the Elizabethan era, when english propagandists seized on the story to assert prior discovery, and hence legal possession, of North America. A later variant on the legend claims that Madoc's and his company intermarried with Native Americans, and that their Welsh-speaking descendants still lived somewhere on the American frontier as 'Welsh Indians.'

The map moreover advocates for english control of much of northern Florida based upon the original Carolina Charter established in 1663 by Charles the II. Further north the map incudes the Grand Banks – a Cod Fishing heaven hotly disputed by various colonial powers well into the early 19th century. Various additional shoals, reefs, and other undersea dangers are noted throughout the Caribbean, here identified as the 'North Sea.'

This map was drawn as plate no. 3 in volume II of the 1744 edition of Bowen's Complete System of Geography.

Cartographer

Emanuel Bowen (1694 - May 8, 1767) was a Welsh cartographer, map engraver, and publisher active in London during the first half and middle of the 18th century. Born at Talley, Carmarthenshire, he was apprenticed in 1709 to the London engraver and globe-maker Charles Price, beginning a career that combined the compilation of geographical information with copperplate engraving for booksellers and map publishers. His early work included maps for an Atlas of the World issued in 1717, followed by Britannia Depicta; or, Ogilby Improv'd (1720), prepared with John Owen, which brought together reduced road-strip maps, county maps, and historical and heraldic information in a portable volume. In 1729, Bowen published a subscription-funded map of South Wales, substantially improving the region's cartographic representation; the map's geographical information subsequently informed his Welsh county maps. After working at several London addresses, he established workshops in Aldersgate, Smithfield, and Clerkenwell, producing maps extensively for other publishers rather than relying on a prominent retail shop. His international cartography included maps for A Complete System of Geography (1744 - 1747), the 1744-48 edition of Navigantium atque itinerantium bibliotheca, and A Complete Atlas (1752). He became geographer to George II around 1747. Among his apprentices were Thomas Kitchin (1719 - 1784), who married Bowen's daughter Sarah in 1739, and Thomas Jefferys (1719 - 1771), apprenticed in 1735. With Kitchin, Bowen produced the county maps issued between 1749 and 1760 that formed The Large English Atlas; their collaboration continued in The Royal English Atlas around 1763. His maps characteristically combined detailed geographical engraving and ornamental cartouches with extensive historical, economic, and topographical annotations. Despite his substantial output and royal appointment, Bowen died in reduced circumstances in 1767. His son and fellow engraver, Thomas Bowen (d. 1790), continued his cartographic work, including Atlas Anglicanus (1767 - 1768), which was completed and issued after Emanuel's death.   Further Details...

Source

Bowen, E., A complete system of geography. Being a description of all the countries, islands, cities, chief towns, harbours, lakes, and rivers, mountains, mines, &c. of the known world …, 1744 edition.    

Condition

Very good. Discoloration near France. Minor verso repairs where originally tipped into frame.