Mapping Iceland

An important expedition to Iceland took place in 1772. Sir Joseph Banks was already known as an explorer, having participated in James Cook’s voyage to the South Seas in 1768–1771. Another mission with Cook was planned, but tension between the British Royal Navy and Banks left him without assignments. He had a ship and crew, equipped for exploration, but with no place to go. So, he decided to go to Iceland. Among his crew was a Swedish theologist, Uno von Troil, who was responsible for keeping the ship’s journal. He later wrote a book about the trip, Bref rörande en resa til Island. His book was published in several languages, all of them accompanied with a similar map, made by “Fredr. Echmansson”. The map first appeared in 177 in the Swedish version.  The same map appeared in the German translation in 1779 (Briefe welche eine von herrn Dr. Uno von Troil in Jahr 1772, nach Island angestellte Reise betreffen), with the heading Charde von Island, zusammangezogen von Fridr. Ekmansson. Similar maps are in the French- (Lettres sur Island, 1781), English- (Letters on Iceland, 1780-83) and Dutch- (1784) versions of the book.