Befitting the spirit of scientific inquiry of late eighteenth century England, this magnificent wall map is richly with illustrated with a wealth of information known to scientists in a multitude of disciplines.

The large double-hemispheres at the centre of the map, are surrounded by a dense border crammed with vignette projections of the "... the World according to Mercator's Projection", the solar system, latitude and longitude, the seasons, the Analemma, the northern and southern skies, the planets, and a superb depiction of the surface of the moon, after Father Riccoli. All other spare space is covered in didactic text, explaining everything from "Geographical Definitions", "The Cause of Tides", "The Art of Dialling by a Common Globe", and "The Vicissitude of the Seasons explained". However, "as the Space to which we are here confined for illustrating of this Universal Scale is very small we can only give a few Problems thereon in this Place,..."

The terrestrial hemispheres, reflect the period's keen interest in grand voyages of discovery. Because of its large-scale format, the tracks of all three of Captain Cook's voyages, which are also generously annotated, are very clear. The circumnavigations of Bougainville (1766-1769) and Ansen (1741-1744) are shown, and as well as those of other explorers. Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the South Pacific, New Zealand and Australia were areas receiving important revisions at the time and can be seen on this map to be coming into focus. Laurie & Whittle have made great improvements to the cartography, largely as a result of Cook's second and third voyages, and Hearne's explorations in Canada. Australia is named both 'New Holland' and 'Terra Australis', with new place names noted along the eastern coast, including Port Jackson (now Sydney).

The map was first published in 1772 by Robert Sayer as 'Scientia Terrarum et Coelorum: or, the Heavens and Earth Astronomically and Geographically Delineated and Display'd…', and was updated and reissued several times, under the same title in 1781 and 1784, after which the title was changed to the current one, and issued for the first time in 1787.

The mapmaker
Samuel Dunn (died 1794) was a British mathematician and astronomer, and was at the forefront of developments in navigation and cartography over the eighteenth century. He was an authorised signatory for ship's masters' certificates, a consultant to the East India Company, and had instruments and publications accepted by the Board of Longitude.

He is best known for his 'Universal Planispheres', published after he had become master of an academy in Chelsea which specialised in "navigation and commerce". Dunn produced a pamphlet on the subject in 1757, and expanded on it and reissued it as this work. The book provided "an economical method of teaching spherical geometry without the expense of purchasing actual globes". The work contained several planispheres - two dimensional maps of the terrestrial and celestial globes on what he called a 'stereographic' projection, mimicking the visual and mathematical properties of globes. Dunn was passionate about navigational education, and his work is an example of the fever gripping Britain as the longitude race continued. He was a proponent of the use of magnetic variation in order to ascertain longitude at sea, and he is mentioned several times in the minutes of the Board of Longitude between 1765 to 1772 (now housed at Cambridge University).