An Historical Map of the Roman Empire and the neighbouring Barbarous Nations

Moll's splendid large map of the Roman Empire based on Guillaume de L'Isle's map of 1709.

Moll’s large map of the Roman Empire is a direct derivative of Guillaume de L’Isle’s map. He states the date of the original French issue as 1709 and the first issue of his English version presumably came out shortly after. As befits Moll’s commercial acumen, he helpfully adds an English translation to the multiple Latin text panels on the map. Many of these are quotes from Pliny with geographical references. The Prime Meridian, going through the Canaries, is cited as being Ptolemy’s Meridian. There is a reference to the Sargasso Sea as a natural barrier preventing Phoenician mariners from sailing west towards the Americas.

Two miniature hemispheres on the upper corners show modern geographical advances in comparison to the Roman world. Notes beneath the western hemispheres make references to several geographers including Sanson, Ortelius and Mercator who held the belief that Plato’s Atlantis was America and another panel states that the author Lucius Marinaeus Siculus, writing c.1530, references a medal showing Augustus Caesar found in the mines of America, suggesting that the Romans had reached as far west as “the Indies”. Geographically, the map goes from north west India in the east to Great Britain in the west and the Sahara in the south to the Baltic Nations in the north.

Finally, a note on the upper centre quotes Moll’s difficulty in obtaining the source map due to unfriendly relations between England and France at the time. Never one to miss a commercial opportunity, Moll is emphasizing the rarity of his source material in London.

Original colour. [EUR1533]