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** This has been posted to MapHist, Maps-L and Ex-Libris **
I am glad to be able to announce the appearance of vol. V of my Monumenta
Cartographica Neerlandica which is published as part of the history of
cartography research program, 'Explokart' of Utrecht University.
MONUMENTA CARTOGRAPHICA NEERLANDICA.
Tien wandkaarten van Blaeu en Visscher / Ten Wall Maps by Blaeu and Visscher.
Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto Publishers, 1996
ISBN 90 6469 704 3 Dutch guilders 325.-
Text volume bilingual (Dutch and English) 386 pp. folio size; c. 400 ills.
Map volume: 10 wall maps printed on 147 sheets (together 20 square meters)
Address: Canaletto Publishers
PO Box 68
2400 AB Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands
Ten Dutch wall maps, published in Amsterdam by W.Jz. Blaeu and the Visscher
family, form the subject of this fifth volume. Some of these maps were
located by the author in foreign collections during the past few years and
are being made accessible to a wider public for the first time.
The textual commentary begins with a sketch of Amsterdam at the time of the
Twelve-Year Truce (1609-21) when the city became one of the principal
centres of map production and map trade.
The second chapter is devoted to the 1608 wall maps of the four continents
by Willem Jansz. [Blaeu], in which attention is paid to the art history
aspects as well as to the geographical content. The copies of the later
state of these maps published by Henricus Hondius (1624/26), which were
rediscovered by the author in the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar,
are reproduced at full scale. Attention is paid first to the allegorical
representations of the four continents in engravings. In order to place the
wall maps published in facsimile in their proper context, an illustrated
overview has been included of all the sets of wall maps of the four
continents published in the Seventeen Provinces befoe 1608. Many new details
are added to what is already known about this subject.
The third chapter focuses on the wall maps of 'Germania' by the Visscher and
Blaeu families. It first sketches the development of the wall maps of
Germania which were published in the Southern Netherlands. Of particular
interest here are the inventories of the stock and copperplates of
Hieronymus Cock. This is followed by a detailed description of the
republication of Rumold Mercator's wall map of Germania (1590) by the
Hondius and Visscher families. In contrast to Mercator's map, the Dutch
editions also include decorative borders with town views and texts. The copy
in twelve separate sheets by Nicolaas Visscher, now in the Bibliotheque
Nationale in Paris, was used for the facsimile, while copies in a private
collection were used for the accompanying town views by Pieter Hendricksz Schut.
The fourth chapter duscusses the large wall map of the province of Holland
and West-Friesland published by Willem Jansz. Blaeu in 1621 (it is the map
which appears on Vermeer's painting 'The Soldier and the Laughing Girl' in
the Frick Collection, New York). This map was based on completely new
surveys by the Van Berckenrode family. The copy in the University Library at
Leiden was used for the facsimile. The copperplates of the map later passed
to the Visscher family, which published several editions beginning in 1637.
In the process, the map underwent drastic changes in lay out and topography.
The last, undated edition is also presented in facsimile, based on the copy
in Leiden University. The town views accompanying the wall map, which are
missing from the Leiden copy, were reproduced from various collections.
In 1608 Giovanni Antonio Magini produced a wall map of Italy which was
copied several times, not only in Italy, but also abroad, particulaly in
Amsterdam. Willem Jansz Blaeu initiated teh series of imitations. The
present study begins with a review of Magini's cartographical activities.
The genesis of his atlas is closely related to his wall map. Blaeu used the
topogaphy of Magini's map for his wall map of Italy, but the decorative
elemenst are of Dutch origin. For our facsimile edition a copy in a private
collection was used.
The final chapter deals with an unknown wall map of Flanders, which was
published by Willem Jansz Blaeu in 1638. Further reserach in connection with
the present facsimile edition revealed, that two further wall maps of
Flanders had been published earlier: one by Henricus Hondius in Amsterdam,
the other by Alexander Serhanders in Ghent.
I like to take also the opportunity of thnaking the persons and bodies with
whom I have been in contact during my research and whose cooperation enabled
me to achieve my goal. The number of map curators, librarians and archivists
at home and abroad who supported my research with their help and advice
during the past years is so large, however, that I cannot thank each of them
individually.
Prof. dr. Guenter Schilder
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Guenter Schilder
Explokart Research Program
FRW-Cartography
University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.115
3508 TC UTRECHT
The Netherlands
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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Guenter Schilder
Explokart Research Program
FRW-Cartography
University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.115
3508 TC UTRECHT
The Netherlands
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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