Nova Virginiae Tabula

Classic Dutch Golden Age rendering of the Chesapeake Bay and the regions of what was to become Virginia and Maryland.

The first map of the Chesapeake Bay was published by John Smith in 1612. In 1618, Jodocus Hondius II used Smith’s map as a source to issue his own map of the Chesapeake Bay and from then on sparked a whole sequence of maps of the same region which continued to be issued until the late 17th century. Hondius’s map is drawn on the same orientation, with north pointing to the right of the sheet but it is more developed and decorative than Smith’s map in keeping with Dutch artistic tradition. More importantly, its issue by such a prestigious cartographic publisher has been cited as garnering much needed publicity for the presence of English settlers in the New World. The founding of the colony of Virginia was not straightforward and it is often postulated that the Smith/Hondius map facilitated the raising of investment to ensure the survival of the fledgling settlement.

Jodocus Hondius died in 1629 and the plate for this map was acquired from his estate by Willem Blaeu, who promptly issued it in 1630, excising Hondius’s name and adding his own. This stimulated Henricus Hondius, brother to Jodocus II, to issue his own map of the Bay.

Essentially, the two maps are based on the same source and share the same information. Following his brother, Henricus also adds the images of Powhatan on the upper left as well as adding the coat of arms of Great Britain on the upper right. There are some differences, Henricus no doubt emphasising that this is a different map to Blaeu’s: the location of the key has been moved on this map to be to the left of the coat of arms, the fonts used on the two maps differ and finally, the figure of the “Virginian Lord” is hipshot to the right as opposed to the left on Blaeu’s map. That image is based on a painting by John White, artist and leader of the failed Roanoke Expedition. White also used the term above for his painting. Theodor de Bry, used White’s paintings as a source for his engravings illustrating his important books on New World exploration and Jodocus Hondius II in turn used this image to illustrate a native American from Virginia.

On Henricus’s death, the business passed to his brother – in – law, Johannes Jansson, who issued this map in several of his atlases, competing fiercely with his arch-rivals, the Blaeu family. Jansson died in 1664 and this is the penultimate issue published from the Atlas Contractus in 1666. There was one final issue in Jansson’s Atlas Major, published in 1675 by Jansson van Waesberge, who inherited the firm.

The map by both publishers is considered one of the cornerstone maps for any collection of maps of Virginia or early America.

Latin text on verso (image available on request). Coloured. [Burden 228] [USA9219]