Map of Iceland

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Antique map of Hans Hoffgaard, 1723.
Hans Hoffgaard was a Danish sea captain who sailed to Iceland. He began surveying Iceland in 1708 and his oldest map of Hólmkaupstaður (Reykjavík) date from 1715 and is the oldest known map of this area. Hoffgaard's first map covering the whole of Iceland was made in 1723 and contains many errors. There was no real progress evident from the older maps based on Bishop Guðbrandur Þorláksson's map.

The basis for Hoffgaard's map were Dutch sea maps, redrawn and distorted by a century of use. The country appears too angular and the coastlines are too straight. Place names should have been in Icelandic but most of them are a mixture of Icelandic and Danish as was the custom at the time. However, this practice was more sensible than the Dutch custom of using Dutch names which had no or at best loose connection to the Icelandic names.
Actual size of map: 63 x 60 cm.

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