He had been sent to the country to explore it and enquire into the state and prospects of the people. In 1752 the Danish scholar, Niels Horrebow, published his book about Iceland entitled Tilforladelige Efterretninger om Island. Their fate was thereby decided, and they were put away under lock and key in some government department, where they lay unpublished and forgotten by nearly everyone for many years. The Danish king put an end to the dispute by deciding that the maps should not be displayed or made use of. Some regarded this as quite outrageous if not actually treasonable. Knoff had sent a copy of some of them to his superior in Norway. When the maps were brought to Copenhagen an amazing dispute began over them. He had also made seven maps of specific districts and an overall map of the whole country which he finished in the year 1734. He had by then completed the work left undone by Magnàºs and corrected his maps to some extent, where it seemed necessary. Knoff began work immediately after his arrival in Iceland and carried on for five summers. The purpose was to make a precise map of the country once and for all. In the year 1730 the Norwegian Army surveyor Thomas Hans Henrik Knoff was sent to Iceland by the Danish government to continue and complete the work of Magnàºs Arason who had been instructed to survey the whole of the country but died before the work was finished. Item Number: 5404 Category: Antique maps > Europe > Northern Europe
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