Atlas Manuale: Or, A New Sett of Maps of all the Parts of the Earth, as well Asia, Africa and America, as Europe.

Folding engraved half title, title in red and black, [3], 44 engraved maps, advertisements, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, contemporary owner inscription to flyleaf, 8vo, J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, J. Wyat et al., 1723.

Herman Moll’s important Atlas Manuale, with a double-hemisphere map of the world showing California as an island; a map of North and South America with the same feature; as also “The Isle of California” which includes much of North America; “The English Empire” in America; with other maps relating to the Americas. On his map of South America, Moll marks the ‘Island of Juan Fernándo’ (also known as Más a Tierra, and now called Robinson Crusoe Island), the place where Alexander Selkirk lived alone for four years. Selkirk’s experience is thought to have inspired Robinson Crusoe .

There are also maps of the remaining continents, various European, Asian and African nations and regions; etc. The map of Africa shows the western coastal region – here archaically termed ‘Negroland’ and ‘Guinea’. The coastline has been divided into zones labelled ‘Grain’, ‘Ivory’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Slave Coast’, illustrating how Europeans exploited these regions for trade and classified enslaved Africans as commodities. The atlas represents Britain as a strong colonial power with wide-reaching commercial interests, but also Britain’s central role in the transatlantic slave trade. ESTC N51131