Reverend Richard Turner (1711 – 1791)
was born in London and educated at St. John’s College in Cambridge. After completing his studies he decided to become a missionary and went to Sweden in 1786. There he worked with the Moravian Church, a protestant denomination that had a strong presence in the country. He spent several years travelling around Sweden, preaching and teaching the gospel. In 1797, he published his first map titled „A New Map of Sweden and Norway, with part of Denmark and Russia“.
Turner used his extensive knowledge of the region, as well as other information from other sources, to create maps which were both informative and aesthetically pleasing. They were well received and became a popular resource for travelers and scholars.
Map details
A rare miniature map which comes of Turner‘s pocket atlas „A New and Easy Introduction to Universal Geography“, subtitled „In a Series of letters to a Youth at School“. Many editions were published between 1780 and and 1819, some after Turner‘s death. This map was in the 14th edition printed for F.C. and J. Rivington etc.
The map resembles map No. 163 from the same author. Most conspicuous is the different font. Another difference is that in this map the signatures of Turner and Terry are not to be found below the bottom neatline of the map.
Its title is placed in a decorative oval cartouche in the upper left corner which is less decorative than in map No. 163 and a distance scale underneath „Russia“ in the lower right corner and not further left.
The map shows Scandinavia, the northern parts of the British Isles and Ireland, „Part of Russia“ and the Baltic region. Place names are indicated by letters which are shortly explained in the left and middle part of the map.
Different to map No. 163 on this map there are no place names along the coastline of Iceland and the interior is completely empty.
The Arctic circle runs a bit too much south.
