1671 / 1682 Frederic De Wit Map of Sicily

Sicily and its Harbors.

This is Frederick De Wit's c. 1671 map of Sicily, one of the most beautiful depictions of the Kingdom of Sicily produced in the Golden Age of Dutch Mapmaking - both in its delineation of Sicily itself and its bird's-eye views of five of Sicily's principal ports.

A Closer Look

The map, which presents Sicily in full, is artfully oriented to the north-northeast, to square Sicily's south coast with the bottom of the frame. Its rivers and streams are laid out in detail with forests and mountains shown pictorially, including a dramatic exploding Mount Etna. The map's title cartouche is presented using a banner motif, suspended by two putti. A beautiful dedicatory cartouche appears in the lower right corner, which is further embellished with an elegant compass rose. Near the Isole Egadi at Sicily's western tip, a sailing ship and an Ottoman war-galley exchange shots.

The Views

Five insets - one at the upper left, the other four along the bottom - present views of five of Sicily's main ports. At the upper left is the port of Messina, with 14 important features listed and keyed to the view. The waters around the harbor are teeming with ships. Along the bottom are views of Palermo, Catania, and Trapani. All four of these (Messina, Palermo, Catania, and Trapani) are derived from the Braun and Hogenberg Civitatis Orbis Terrarum and are thus 16th-century views of the cities they depict. The fifth inset depicts Milazzo and appears on the lower left. However, it is not a view so much as a fortification plan, depicting modern earthworks surrounding the older walls. It appears to be derived from a much more modern source - the 1663 Atlas van Loon.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by De Wit as early as 1671. The addition of a plate number '24' in the upper right border identifies this as the 1682-86 second 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

de Wit, F., Atlas, (Amsterdam) 1688.    

Condition

Excellent. Reinforced centerfold split at bottom well away from printed image. else fine.

References

OCLC 71664618. Carhart, G., Frederick De Wit and the First Concise Reference Atlas map 44.2.