Danckerts Map of Florida, the West Indies and the Caribbean, First edition

A stunning example of Cornelius Danckerts' important 1696 map of Florida, the West Indies, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Spanish Main. Cartographically influenced by Blaeu's 1636 map of the same region, this map covers from Mexico to the Antilles and from Florida to the Spanish Main, inclusive of Cuba, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles. The detail throughout is spectacular with missions, forts, cities, ports, rivers, lakes, indigenous groups, and an assortment of additional topographical details noted. Florida is labeled as the province of "Tegesta", following the convention established by Dutch cartographers Johannes de Laet and Hessel Gerritzoon in 1630. The Tegesta were an indigenous tribe active in the southeastern parts of Florida, around what is today Miami-Dade. They were encountered in the 16th century by Ponce de Leon and by one of the ships commanded by Pedro Men?ndez de Avil?s. Though largely subject to the more powerful tribes of western Florida, the Tegesta were among the first of Florida's indigenous groups to encounter Europeans and subsequently influenced the naming of Florida for some 200 years. Curiously, despite several expeditions and interesting earlier maps of Florida, Dankerts has chosen to leave the interior blank, noting neither the Everglades nor any of Florida's great lakes. The interesting cartographic decision to discard all previous mappings of the Florida region contrasts strikingly with the remainder of the map, which is lavishly and often speculative detailed. The West India Islands, centered on Cuba, are mapped with considerable accuracy though universally distorted on the north-south axis. The Bahamas are vaguely and inaccurately mapped throughout, though some attempt has been made to depict the undersea Bahama Bank. San Salvador or Guanahani, the supposed island where Columbus is said to have first landed in the New World, is noted. Central America, which sweeps diagonally across the lower left quadrant of the map is strikingly accurate with the exception of a distorted Yucatan - which here appears almost like an inversion of a similarly distorted Florida just to the northeast. Both Lake Nicaragua and the adjacent Lake Managua are noted, but are situated on an east-west rather than the correct north-south axis. Along the Spanish Main the great trading cities of Cartagena, Venezuela, and Valentia are noted, ss are a number of missions and indigenous centers in the interior. Maracaibo Bay is entirely misrepresented. Further east, Dankerts attempts to illustrate the countless islands of the Orinoco Delta. A title cartouche including two cherubs appears in the upper right quadrant. A key to the map's symbols, three distance scales, and an secondary Dutch description of the map appears above the map's printed border. The description declares that this map was made to illustrate the theater of war in the West Indies. The war in question is most likely the Nine Years' War (1688?97), fought between France and England over control of the New World. It was this war that harkened the Great Age of Piracy, with various colonial powers issuing letters of marque to the notorious fortune seeking privateers and buccaneers of the Caribbean and Spanish Main. Cartographer: The Dankerts family (fl. 1628 - 1717) were a Dutch engraving and cartographic publishing firm active in Amsterdam during the latter half of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The firm was founded by Cornelis Dankerts II (1603-1656) and his brother Dancker Danckerts (1614-16?). Cornelius and Dancker published few maps, but did pass the business on to Cornelius' son Justus Dankerts (1635 - 1701) and grandsons Theodorus Dankerts (1663-1727) and Cornelius Danckerts III (1664-1717). The firm was most active in this period between 1680 and 1700 when a number of atlases and maps appeared bearing either the Justus Danckerts or Theodorus Dankerts imprint. At the time, it was in vogue in Amsterdam to leave maps undated, which makes Dankerts maps particularly difficult to ascribe. Similarly, there is a considerable corpus of maps signed as Cornelius Dankerts. When dated we can correctly attribute these to either Cornelius II or Cornelius III, though, typically, most are undated and consequently difficult to attach to the correct Dankerts family member. The Dankerts family is well known for its highly detailed and graphic engraving style. In addition to numerous atlas maps, they also produced a number of spectacular Dutch wall maps.

Width: 22"    Height: 18.50"   

Item:

17716

List Price:

$2,500.00

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