Petrus Plancius was a Calvinist minister resident in Flanders who was forced to escape to Amsterdam to avoid religious prosecution in the late 16th century. In Amsterdam, he entered the field of cartography, publishing and globe making. He formed a network of collaborators, including Jan van Doetecum, probably the finest engraver in Amsterdam during the last decade of the 16th century and Christoph Plantin, one of the foremost map sellers and publishers of the time. Most importantly, he was a fervent advocate of Dutch expansion in the east and became one of the founding members of the Dutch East India Company. Later this would give him unrivalled access to maps of that region of the world.

As the date on the title of this map suggests, it was engraved in 1594 and marked an extraordinary advance for the aesthetics of maps. For the first time, a Dutch map portrayed illustrated borders. No doubt Plancius was mindful of the commercial aspect of his maps and the illustrations were inspired and stylistically influenced by the images produced by the German publisher Theodore De Bry, in his popular “Grand” and “Petit Voyages”. These were accounts of great explorers and their deeds in both the east and the west and one imagines that Plancius would certainly be aware of both their existence and success. These cartographic illustrations caused such a sensation and proved so popular that they became a standard feature on the majority of world maps during the Dutch Golden Age; and if they were not allegorical figures of landmasses as featured on this map, then they were variations on a theme, such as classical figures, images of famous mapmakers, or often allegorical figures representing seasons or elements.

Later Dutch map makers were endlessly inventive with their decorative features but ultimately, the initial concept can be traced to this map. The allegorical figures on its borders represent various landmasses known to Plancius. In time, these would be standardised to show the four known landmasses of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas but in this early case, the first three are labelled on the upper border but the lower border is dedicated to the New World, divided into the regions of Peruana, Magallanica and Mexicana, reflecting a lack of common conventions for the nomenclature at the time.

Geographically, the map has been compiled from several sources. Probably the main source is Plancius’s own wall map of the world issued in 1592 accounting for his new distinctive shape of North and South America. Plancius had also acquired a collection of maps from the Portuguese map maker, Bartolomeu Lasso, which together with the maps of Luis Texeira, gave him access to the geography of Asia and the Far East, allowing him to show a far more detailed geography of the region, including Japan and the portrayal of the Korean Peninsula on a map for the first time. His mapping of the North Pole was based on Mercator, showing it as four separate islands and with a clear delineation of the geographical misconceptions of the Northeast and the Northwest Passages just south of these ” islands”. Plancius was a fervent advocate of commercial expansion to the east and kept abreast of searches for both Passages. He was also known to have been a friend of Henry Hudson who later gave his name to the Hudson Bay Company.

The map was engraved by van Doetecum in 1594 as per the title and issued as a separate publication probably the year after. However, it was included in Hugo van Linschoten’s travel work, the “Itinerario” thus explaining both its popularity and occasional availability to collectors.

[WLD3709]