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Tijdschrift voor de Historische Kartografie in Nederland
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In 1770 and thereafter, the military engineer J.C. Heneman (approx.
1738-1806) prepared maps of Surinam and Guyana for military,
administrative, civiltechnical and hydrographical purposes while in
the service of the Society of Surinam. At the present time, his
approx. 50 ms. maps are conserved in the Maproom of the General
State Archives in The Hague.
Research of these maps in relation to written records is of
importance for the evaluation of the information contained in the
maps.
Heneman did his surveying work in the colonies until 1778, and
after that he worked in the House of the West India Company in
Amsterdam as a drawer of maps and as an administrator. In 1784
Gerard Hulst van Keulen published his map of the colony Surinam
in copperprint (scale approx. 1: 177.000). Heneman extended this
map in later years with more recent information and made it into a
cadastral map (scale approx. 1: 15.000, 146 ms. sheets).
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P. Ratsma
Atlases in the Rotterdam city archives: questions as a result of an inventarisation
[Caert-Thresoor 1(1982) 2, pp. 21-24]
The municipal record-office of the city of Rotterdam has
published a catalogue of its holdings of atlases, in which
are also included topographical works and travellers'
guides with many maps. A part of the atlases has come to
the city from early days a great part, however, has been
inherited or given by the many relations the municipal
record-office has in Rotterdam and elsewhere. This is why
rather rare atlases have often been preserved.
The other day there was an exhibition of atlases during
which much attention was paid to historical maps and
nineteenth-century thematical maps, both subjects about
which little has been published up to now. There is no
doubt that much material relating to maps and atlases
would come to the surface if other coflections of atlases
would also be published.
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Klaas Kalkwiek
Medieval world maps (part I)
[Caert-Thresoor 2(1982) 1, pp. 34-40]
Medieval world maps can be divided into two categories.
The first category is the one of a spherical earth showing
five climatic zones and four habitable continents. The
second one is the category of T-O maps showing a flat
earth with one habitable world, consisting of three con-
tinents. All of these maps have a striking lack of accuracy,
they are unsuitable for practical use. Nevertheless medieval
man was very well capable of taking his bearings, as his
distant voyages show. This series of articles will try to find
an explanation for the medieval map and the methods of
orientation in the middle ages. Cognitive psychology, hav-
ing introduced the concept of "mental map", may be of
use for this.
The world maps of antiquity are worth mentioning because
of their influence on medieval cartography. Heikataios
(c. 550 B.C.) takes the line of a flat earth with a large
Europe and another two continents, Asia and Africa. Later
on geographers believed in a spherical earth. Eratosthenes
(c. 250 B.C.) reduced the size of Europe and enlarged
Asia and Africa. He succeeded in calculating the size of the
earth in a surprisingly accurate way. Poseidonius (c. 111
B.C.) recalculated the size of the earth and came to a much
too low value, that was to be authoritive for a long time.
On the now much smaller globe there was, besided the
known world, no space left for other continents. Ptolemaios
(c. 150) introduced new projection-techniques but also a
land-surrounded Indian Ocean. The latter meant a serious
decline in geographical knowledge. In late antiquity decay
started and the old concepts of a globe showing four con-
tinents re-emerged.
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C. Koeman
17th century Dutch contributions to the charting of the American coasts
[Caert-Thresoor 1(1982) 4, pp. 50-53]
In the history of the charting of the American coasts the
17th century is the Dutch period. Especially the Dutch
West-Indian Company played a prominent part in the view
of their need of correct charts. This article reviews some
important charts and atlases from this period. - The "West-
Indian Pascaert" is a nautical chart of the entire Atlantic
Ocean which, for the use on board ships, was printed on
vellum. Consequently, the scale of this chart is restrieted to
the maximum size of vellum, viz. 70 x 90 cm.
The first West-Indian Pascaert was printed round about
1617 by Willem Jansz. Blaeu.
- The atlas with maps and prints by Johannes Vingboons
(1617-1670) contains a.o. a chart of the coasts of America
in 56 sheets. This manuscript atlas contained secret infor-
mation and was not meant to be used on board trading-
vessels.
- The Burning Fen by Arent Roggeveen, of which the first
part was issued in 1675 by Pieter Goos, is the first rutter
including the coast of America. In aid of his compilation
use wffl have been made (amongst other things) of Spanish
Portolan charts in the collection of the East and West
Indian Companies.
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Paul van den Brink
The map collection of the Holland Land Company
[Caert-Thresoor 1(1982) 4, pp. 54-56]
The map collection of the Holland Land Company, present in the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam, is the carto- graphic result of the many purchases of land and its management by a number of Amsterdam business firms in the states of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The appr. 550 detafled maps, of which 75% are manuscripts; are being described on behalf of the Dutch Central Catalogue of Cartography (CCK) and all the files are being filmed with the aid of funds raises in the USA. Therefore the collection can become much wider known than has been the case up till now. (back)
Kees Zandvliet
An old-fashioned map of New Netherlands by Cornelis Doetsz. and Willem Jansz. Blaeu
[Caert-Thresoor 1(1982) 4, pp. 57-60]
With the help of some signed maps Cornelis Doetsz (+ 1613) is shown to have drawn the first map of Nieuw Nederland (fig. 2). Doetsz drew an incomplete map using red lines, which was completed in black lines in 1614 after new surveys by Adriaen Block. On the basis of this map the States General granted a privelege to the Compagnie van Nieuw Nederland in October 1614. It is probably that the Edam-school of map-makers (amongst whom Doetsz) may have to be seen, perhaps via Benjamin Wright, in direct relation with the so-called Thames-school in London (amongst whom Gabriel Tatton). The map Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova by Willem Jansz Blaeu (1635) is almost an exact copy of the Doetsz map (fig. l). Because of the encyclopedic character of the map, with decorations scattered all over it like stickers, contrasting with other better composed and more balanced maps, the Blaeu map is here called - a bit provoking - old-fashioned. (back)