chapter ix

. of the present volume, to be supplemented by the present brief statement.

Willem Jannson Blaeu was born in 1571, and died in 1638, and, with his sons Jean and Cornelis, devoted himself with untiring assiduity to his art. In 1647 the number of their maps reached one hundred. In 1655 their _Atlas_ had reached six volumes, and contained 372 maps. In this year (1655) the Blaeu establishment issued separately the American map, _Americæ nova Tabula_, with nine views of towns and representations of native costumes, accompanied by four pages of text. The Latin edition of 1662-63, _Atlas major, sive cosmographia Blaviana_, had 586 maps, of which the collection in the _Carter-Brown Catalogue_ (ii. 900) shows 23 in vol. xi. to belong to America.[742]

The Blaeu establishment was burned in 1672, and most of the plates were lost. Those which were saved passed into the hands of Frederic de Witt, who put his name on them, and they continued to be issued thus inscribed in the _Blaeu Atlas_ of 1685, etc.; and when De Witt’s business fell to Covens and Mortier, the inscriptions were again altered.[743]

* * * * *

A French atlas began a little later to attract attention, and ultimately made the name of its maker famous in cartographic annals. It was begun in 1646 by Nicolas Sanson d’Abbeville, who in 1647 was appointed Royal Geographer of France, and held that office till his death.[744] The volume of his _Atlas_, containing fifteen American maps, and entitled _L’Amérique, en plusieurs Cartes nouvelles et exactes_, was published by the author in Paris without date, but probably in 1656, though some copies are dated in 1657, 1658, and 1662.[745]

The elder Sanson, having been born in 1600, died in 1667, leaving about four hundred plates to his sons, who kept up the name,[746] and their stock subsequently fell to Robert Vaugondy, who has given a notice of the Sansons in his _Essai sur l’Hist. de la Géog._, as has Lenglet Dufresnoy in his _Méthode pour étudier la Géographie_.[747]

A new Dutch atlas, that of N. Visscher, called _Atlas minor, sive Geographia compendiosa_, appeared at Amsterdam about 1670. It contained twenty-six maps, and had three American maps; but the number was increased in later editions.[748] In 1680 it appeared in two volumes with 195 maps, 10 of which were American, and plates by Jannson, De Witt, and others, were included. It is not easy to discriminate among various composite atlases of this period, the chief cartographers being made to contribute to various imprints. Another _Atlas minor, novissimas Orbis Terrarum Tabulas complectens_, is likewise of this date (1680), and passes under the name of S. Wolfgang, with maps by Blaeu, Visscher, De Witt, and others. This usually contains nineteen American maps. Other atlases have the name of Frederic de Witt, who, as we have seen, got possession of some of Blaeu’s plates. The first example of his imprint appeared about 1675, at Amsterdam, with a printed index calling for 102 maps. Another edition (? 1680) is indexed for 160 plates, contained in two volumes of maps, and a third of charts.[749] Another small German atlas, the _Vorstellung der gantzen Welt_, of J. U. Muller, was published at Ulm in 1692, which had eighteen small American maps; and towards the close of the century the _Atlas minor_ of Allard obtained a good popularity. The pre-eminent name of Delisle, just becoming known, marked the opening of a new era in cartography, which is beyond the limits of the present volume.

* * * * *

Some notice should be given of another class of atlases, the successors of the portolanos of the sixteenth century, and the beginning of the later science of hydrography. In these the Dutch were conspicuous; and many of their subsequent charts trace back to the larger _pascaart_ of the North Atlantic which Jacob Aertz Colom published at Amsterdam about 1630.[750] Among the earliest of the regular _Zee-Atlases_ was that of Theunis Jacobsz, published in Amsterdam about 1635, which has a chart showing the American coast-line from Nova Francia to Virginia. Of large importance in this direction was the _Arcano del Mare_ of Robert Dudley, issued at Florence in 1646-1647, of which mention has been made in other chapters in this and in the preceding volume. Another of the Amsterdam Coloms—Arnold Colom—published his _Zee-Atlas_ about 1650, which contains six American coast-charts, and sometimes appears with a Latin title, _Ora maritima Orbis universi_, and is of interest in the historical study of our American coast-lines, improving as he does the preceding work of Jacobsz. Later editions of Colom, dating the charts, appeared in 1656 and 1663.[751] Of about this same date (1654) is a _pascaart_, published at Amsterdam, which seems to have been the joint business project of Frederic de Witt, Anthony and Theunis Jacobsz, and Gulielmus Blaeu. The world-map in it is dated 1652, and is doubly marked “C. J. Visscher” (Claes Jannson Visscher) and “Autore N. J. Piscator” (Nicolas Joanides), as the Latin equivalent of the same person. It shows the Atlantic coast from Labrador to Brazil. The first edition of Hendrick Doncker’s _Zee-Atlas ofte Water-Waereld_ appeared at Amsterdam in 1659, and is particularly useful for the American coasts. New maps were added to it in the edition of 1666; but the _Nieuwe Groote vermeerderde Zee-Atlas_ of 1676, though still called Doncker’s, is based on Colom, and has Colom’s six American charts. Additional American and other charts were added to the 1697 edition; while a set of still larger charts constitute Doncker’s _Nieuw Groot Zeekaert-boek_ of 1712.[752]

The _Zee-Atlas_ of Van Loon, with its forty-five double charts, appeared in 1661.[753] It is in parts reproduced from Blaeu, De Laet, and Jannson. Its numbers 46 and 47 show the coast from Newfoundland southwards. P. Goos, in his _Lichtende Colomme_, Amsterdam, 1657, had touched the Arctic coasts of America; but in his _Zee-Atlas_ of 1666 he gave in excellent manner eleven charts of the coasts of both Americas, out of the forty-one charts in all. These were all repeated in the edition of 1668-1669, and in the French edition, _Atlas de la Mer_, 1673. Other Dutch editions, with some changes, followed in 1675 and 1676. It was issued with an English text at Amsterdam in 1670.

Frederic de Witt, who had earlier appended to his _Atlas_ a section of maritime charts, published his _Zee-Atlas_ in 1675, which contained twenty-seven charts, eight of which were American; and in 1676 Arent Roggeveen issued his well-known navigator’s chart-book, which in English is known as _The Burning Fen_ (1676), and which also has a Spanish dress (1680). It gives in successive charts the whole eastern coast of the two Americas, on a large scale. Johann van Keulen, who had published a chart of the coast from Nantucket to Trinidad in 1680, issued a _Zee-Atlas_ in 1682-1687, based in part upon Van Loon, enlarging it in successive issues, so that in the edition of 1694 it had 146 charts, of which 38 were American. A later edition in 1734 contained 12 large folded charts of American coasts.[754]

Near the close of the century we come to the earliest of the French marine atlases, the _Neptune Français_, which Jaillot published in its enlarged form in 1693; but not till a _Suite du Neptune Français_ was issued in 1700 did any charts of American coasts make part of it. This contained eleven on America, professing to be based on Sanson’s drafts.

THE MAPS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, SHOWING CANADA.

BY THE EDITOR.

[Detailed maps of the Upper Lakes and the Mississippi Basin, as well as those produced by Hennepin, though connected with this period, are made the subject of separate treatment elsewhere in the present volume. The general atlases are treated in the next preceding pages.]

[Illustration: MOLINEAUX, 1600.

The key is as follows:

1. Discovered by Cabot. 2. Bacalaos. 3. C. Bonavista. 4. C. Raso. 5. C. Britton. 6. I. Sables. 7. I. S. John. 8. Claudia. 9. Comokee. 10. C. Chesepick. 11. Hotorast. 12. La Bermudas. 13. Bahama. 14. La Florida. 15. The Gulfe of Mexico. 16. Virginia. 17. The Lacke of Tadenac, the bounds whereof are unknowne. 18. Canada. 19. Hochelague.

Except for the supposed inland sea, much the same configuration of Nova Francia is given in the map of not far from this date which Hondius made to illustrate Drake’s voyage, and of which a fac-simile is given in the Hakluyt Society’s edition of _The World Encompassed_. The same general character belongs to the Hondius map in the 1613 edition of Mercator; while in the same book the _Orbis Terræ compendiosa Descriptio_ is very nearly of the original Mercator and Ortelius type, which is also closely followed in a second map, _America, sive India nova, per Michælem Mercatorem_. Another map of the same date is in Megiser’s _Septentrio Novantiquus_, Leipsic, 1613.]

IN the notes at the end of