De Werelt Caart
Cornelis Dankerts, 1728

This item is sold. It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

De Werelt Caart
detail detail
detail
Cornelis Dankerts (after)
De Werelt Caart
R. & J. Wetstein / W. Smith, Amsterdam: 1728
Hand colored copperplate engraving
15.75 x 21.5 inches, overall
14.5 x 20.25 inches, image
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Double hemisphere map also featuring small inset polar hemisphere maps and astronomical diagrams. It was probably based on a 17th-century world map by Dankerts that incorporated information about Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand based on Tasman's discoveries in 1642-44 --unexplored areas on the eastern and southeastern coast were left blank. California is depicted as an island and tributaries of the Mississippi River are shown. There is a land mass titled 'Terre Esonis' stretching between eastern Asia and North America. The map is extensively labeled with place names. It was reissued many times during the first part of the 18th century.

Additional diagrams surrounding the main map include an illustration of the orbit of planets according to Ptolemaic theory that the earth was at the center of the solar system, a Ptolemaic armillary sphere based upon the same concept, a Ptolemaic diagram of the Sun's position in the sky at varying degrees of latitude, and a diagram showing the relationship between the Sun, Moon, and Earth in a solar and lunar eclipse. Maps of the north and south poles are show in the center. Keys are provided along the top, and a table on the bottom right, all giving information pertaining to the lines of latitude and longitude appearing in the maps.

Cornelis Dankerts the Elder (1603-1656) was a 17th-century Dutch mapmaker and the founder of a prominent print and map selling business that was continued by later generations of Dankerts, including his grandson, referred to as Cornelis II (1664-1717). He produced a number of single-sheet maps and wall maps, and also worked for John Speed (1552-1629), an important early English mapmaker. Dankerts engraved the civil war battles for the 1627 edition of Speed's Theatre. The Dutch were among the earliest Europeans to chart the Australian coast, and the earliest map to accurately depict the Dutch discovery of Cape York was produced in 1628 by Cornelius Dankerts and Melchior Tavernier for the Dutch East India Company. The Dankerts family was known for their splendid wall maps of the world and the continents. In the first part of the 18th century, their stock of plates was acquired by R. and J. Ottens who used them for re-issues, replacing the Dankerts' names with their own.

Rudolph Wetstein (d. 1742) and Jacob Wetstein were publishers in Amsterdam active from 1700 to 1730. They published maps with printer William Smith.

Bottom left margin reads: "tot Amsterdam Nieuwelÿks uÿt Gegeven door Cornelis Dankerts voor aen op de Nieuwendÿck in den Atlas met Previegie." 'Niewendijk in de Atlas' (the contemporary spelling) was the address of Cornelis Dankerts II's firm.

References:

"J.M. Fleischmann." Dutch Type Library. http://www.dutchtypelibrary.nl/DTLFleischmann.html (17 June 2003).

"Important Dutch Mapmakers." Paulus Swaen Auctions. http://www.swaen.com/mapmaker.html (17 June 2003).

Joppen, Pierre. "Cornelis Dankerts the Elder." Maphist.com Dictionary of Map Makers. 14 January 2003. http://www.maphist.com/artman/publish/article_140.shtml (17 June 2003).

Meacham, Steve. "Men Who Put Australia on the Map." Sydney Morning Herald. 22 July 2002. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/21/1026898947521.html (17 June 2003).

Tooley, R.V. Maps and Map-Makers. 4th Ed. New York: Bonanza Books, 1970. p. 122.

Van de Gohm, Richard. Antique Maps for the Collector. New York: Macmillan, 1973. p. 33.