1670 / 1680 Frederic De Wit Map of the British Isles

Dutch Golden Age Map of the British Isles.

This beautifully engraved map is Frederick De Wit's c. 1680 map of the British Isles. Between its artful presentation and up-to-date cartography, it represents a classic of the Dutch Golden Age of Mapmaking.

A Closer Look

The map spans from Ireland in the west to the Low Countries in the east, emphasizing the proximity of Britain to Holland, Flanders, and France. The southernmost Orkney Islands appear at the top limit of the map beyond Pentland Firth. In the upper right, the title cartouche is presented as a banner supported by nereids and aquatic putti, supported over the Royal Coat of Arms of England. The individual arms of England, Ireland, and Scotland appear at the upper left.

State-of-the-art Scotland

De Wit's map of the British Isles is the third of six cataloged by Rodney Shirley. This one improved sharply over prior iterations by its incorporation of the surveys of Robert Gordon of Straloch, whose 1648 Theatrum Scotiaewas the first systematic survey of Scotland, and the first performed by someone who lived there. Editions of his atlas of Scotland had been published by the Blaeu firm in three editions by the time De Wit produced this work, allowing him to incorporate the new data here.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by De Wit between 1668 and 1670; the change of the map's longitude enumeration from 10° - 26° to the 8° - 24° identifies this as the c. 1680 fourth state of this map, according to Carhart's cartobibliography. The map is well represented in institutional collections in its various states.

Cartographer

Frederik de Wit (1629 - 1706) was a Dutch Golden Age cartographer active in the second half of the 17th and the early 18th centuries. De Wit was born of middle class Protestant stock in the western Netherlandish town of Gouda. He relocated to Amsterdam sometime before 1648, where he worked under Willem Blaeu. His first attributed engraved map, a plan of Haarlem for Antonius Sanderus' Flandria Illustrata, was issued around this time. He struck out on his own in 1654. The first chart that De Wit personally both drew and engraved was most likely his 1659 map of Denmark, REGNI DANIÆ Accuratissima delineatio Perfeckte Kaerte van ‘t CONJNCKRYCK DENEMARCKEN. His great wall map of the world and most famous work, Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula appeared one year later. Following the publication of his wall map De Wit quickly rose in prominence as a both cartographer and engraver. He married Maria van der Way in 1661 and through her became a citizen of Amsterdam in 1662. Around this time he also published his first major atlas, a composite production ranging in size from 17 to over 150 maps and charts. Other atlases and individual maps followed. In 1689 De Wit was granted a 15 year Privilege by the Dutch States General. (An early copyright that protected the recipient's rights to print and publish.) He was recognized with the honorific 'Good Citizen' in 1694. De Wit died in 1706 after which his wife Maria continued publishing his maps until about 1710. De Wit's son, Franciscus, had no interest in the map trade, instead choosing to prosper as a stockfish merchant. On her own retirement, Maria sold most De Wit maps and plates at a public auction. Most were acquired by Pieter Mortier and laid the groundwork for the 1721 rise of Covens and Mortier, the largest Dutch cartographic publishing house of the 18th century.   Further Details...

Source

Wit, F., Atlas (Amsterdam) 1680.    

Condition

Good. Mended centerfold split with some impact to image.

References

OCLC 557586304. Rumsey 11755.009 (tipped into Visscher atlas). Carhart, G., Frederick De Wit and the First Concise Reference Atlas map 103.4. Shirley, R. W., Early Printed Maps of the British Isles 1477-1650, De Wit 3.