Map of Maryland and Virginia of 1660-1670 Created by Augustin Herrmann

Abstract

In the paper a little known large 4-folio map of the territory of the later US states Virginia and Maryland is introduced. The map, which was surveyed and composed between 1660 and 1670, is exceptional from several points of view: the vast impenetrable territory covering a strip of land of about 700 × 400 km was mapped by one man, Augustin Herrman “Bohemian” (as he called himself) and by his crew during 10-year surveying and trigonometric measurements. It seems that this extraordinary map belongs among the first geodetically surveyed maps of the American territory. In 1960 altogether 5 copies of the map, complete in four parts, were known in British, French and American Libraries and map collections.