Cutler, Nathaniel (sold)
Nathaniel Cutler (fl. 1728) was a British mathematician, instrument maker and mapseller. He appears to have married in 1711, but we have neither birth nor death records for the man. He surfaces only as the author of the second part - 'A general coasting pilot'- of the 1728 Atlas Maritimus et Commercialis, the first merchant atlas printed for a public audience. A business card for a Nathaniel Cutler has survived, with a highly suspect dating of 1631.
The first English Trade Atlas.
Atlas Maritimus et Commercialis or, A General View of the World, so far as relates to trade and navigation.
sold
This 1728 nautical atlas is the first openly published commercial geography produced for a general audience. 'No previous work in English had offered a survey of the world's trading sites on this scale' (Rogers, 2023). It was an ambitious project brought to completion by a consortium of mapmakers, printers, and writers. While it is conventionally credited to Nathaniel Cutler and the illustrious Edmond Halley, these supplied only portions of the monumental work. The maps can be assigned to John Senex, drawing extensively on a new projection provided by Henry Wilson; much of the descriptive content of the first part of the work has been attributed to the prolific Daniel Defoe, while the second portion - A General Coasting Pilot; Containing Directions for Sailing - is attributed to Cutler. (more details)