Biography

Johann Baptiste Homann was a German engraver and cartographer, founder of the cartographic publishing house in Nurnberg, the leading map publisher in Germany in the 18th century.

Johann Baptist Homann was born in Oberkammlach (near Kammlach) in Bavaria. Almost all his life he lived in Nurnberg.

Homann opened the cartographic workshop in 1692 in Nurnberg, in 1702 he added a printing house of geographical books. His company cooperated with prominent scientists, for example, mathematician I. G. Doppelmayer, geographer and historian I.G. Gregory, the astronomer I.T. Mayer.

In 1715, Homann was admitted to the Royal Prussian Scientific Society and received the title of the geographer of His Imperial Majesty from Charles VI .

In 1716, Hohmann published his masterpiece "Grosser Atlas über die ganze Welt" (The Great Atlas of the World) that consisted of 126 pages.

After the Hohmann's death, his son Johann Christophe Homann (1703-1730) continued his business, and later heirs – his son-in-law  Johann Georg Ebersperger (1695-1760) and Johann Michael Franz (1700-1761), who sold maps under the trademark "Homännische Erben » («Heirs of Homann ») until 1848.

Among others, Hohmann also compiled the map "The Newest Universal Map of the whole Russian Empire" in 1716. That was the time of Peter the Great reign and active and presence of the Germans in the political and public life of the Russian state.