The ‘Atlas Maritimus & Commercialis’ was originally proposed in 1719. The maps were to be an improvement on those using Gerard Mercator’s projection by using a globular one. The atlas is usually attributed to the great Astronomer Royal Edmund Halley (1656-1742) who wrote the prefatory note discussing the use of the charts. The science of early cartography focussed more on its geographical content and its projection than anything else. But it was the flowering of the scientific renaissance under King Charles II of England that really brought about many new studies. The formation of the Royal Society in 1660, given a royal charter two years later, was a major stimulus to the field. Amongst its greatest members of the time were Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton. It was Edmond Halley who expanded in to the field of thematic mapping. This is when a map reflects specific data rather than a general map which displays all sorts of material.

The newly formed Royal Society took a great interest in cartography and encouraged many an early work. Some cartographers were even members, notably Joseph Moxon who was joined on the day of his election by his good friend Halley. Edmond Halley is of course most well known for the comet named after him, but like many of the natural philosophers of his day his interests and skills stretched far and wide. Indeed he was regarded by ‘Nature’ in 1880 as second only to Newton in the Anglo Saxon world.

Halley was born 29 October 1656 in Shoreditch, north east London, then in the country. He went to St. Paul’s School in London which counted among its old students the likes of John Milton and Samuel Pepys. It was whilst at school that Halley first measured the variation of the compass. In 1673 Halley entered Queen’s College, Oxford. Whilst still an undergraduate he published the first of some eighty papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ on the problem of determining the orbit of a planet. In the same year he wrote to the Royal Society about the feasibility of producing a star catalogue of the southern hemisphere. It would compliment that of the north produced by the likes of Hevelius, Cassini and Flamsteed. Approved by the King, Halley left for St. Helena for a year and produced a catalogue of over 340 stars which was published in 1678. His meeting with Newton in 1683 was instrumental in the publication of the ‘Principia Mathematica’, Halley paid for the printing. In 1686 he published what is considered the earliest meteorological chart in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’. It has no title but is often called his ‘Chart of the Trade Winds’.

From the early 1690s Halley had been negotiating with the Royal Society for the use of a ship on a voyage of scientific discovery. Granted the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy and with Royal approval he set sail in the ‘Paramore’ in 1699. The purpose of the voyage was to measure the variation of the compass throughout the Atlantic Ocean. He was hoping that a more measured approach over a large area might formulate a method of determining longitude, the holy grail of navigation. Halley’s sea voyage was the first undertaken for purely scientific purposes. Shortly after returning he published his map which contained about 150 observations. It is credited with being the first printed map to show isogones or lines of equal magnetic variation. Indeed it is the first to introduce the idea of lines connecting equal values. Since then isolines (lines connecting points of equal intensity) are found in all sorts of maps.

It was shortly after this period that Halley’s greatest claim to fame was published. In 1705 a paper he wrote for the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ using Newtonian physics predicted that a comet he had seen in 1682 would return again every seventy-six years. It did, after his death, and it has been known by his name ever since. It had a profound effect on allaying popular fear of these celestial events. Halley died 14 January 1742 aged 85. He remained to his death a captain in the Royal Navy, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford and Astronomer Royal.

The author of the first part is believed to be Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) whose early career was as a merchant which brought him some reward but he often found himself in debt. In later life he turned to writing and published ‘Robinson Crusoe’ famously in 1719. The first part of the atlas describes all the countries of the world and their commodities which might be traded. The co-author to the ‘Atlas Maritimus & Commercialis’ is Nathanial Cutler who contributed the sailing directions to the second part accompanied by the series of charts. One of the atlases innovations was the use of a globular projection by John Senex for the chart of Western Europe.

As indicated by the title the atlas had a distinct commercial interest but unlike the series of ‘English Pilot’s’ did cover the entire world. There is only one edition of the atlas but early issues like this example bear ‘A Chart of the Coast of Scotland’ (no. 4) on Senex’s globular projection. A good example of an important and uncommon atlas. Provenance: private collection sold at Sotheby’s London 11 March 1999 lot 25; acquired by David Gestetner, London; Daniel Crouch Rare Books ‘The Gestetner Collection of Maritime Atlases & Voyages’ item 29. ESTC N30855; NMM 3:341; Phillips 3298; Shirley (2004) M.Hall 1a no. 11.