Hermann Moll

1654-1732

German (London, England)

Hermann Moll was one of the most important figures in the English map trade in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. However, very little is known about his background. It seems likely that he came from Germany, possibly Bremen, and was in London by 1678. He published his first original maps in the early 1680s and had set up his own shop by the 1690s.

Over the course of his career, he published dozens of geographies, atlases, and histories, not to mention numerous sheet maps. His most famous works are Atlas Geographus, a monthly magazine that ran from 1708 to 1717, and The World Described (1715-54). He also frequently made maps for books, including those of Dampier’s publications and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.