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First State - One of Two or Three Known Copies.

Drink and be Merry - Van Geelkercken's Wine and Beer World Map.

This remarkable world map, elaborately engraved by Nicholas van Geelkercken and published by Johannes Janssonius in 1617, stands as a testament to both the cartography and cultural priorities of the early 17th-century Netherlands.

This is the extremely rare first state, untraced on the market since 1979.

The Cartography

The cartography in this map broadly follows Van Geelkercken's double-hemisphere world map of 1610 (Shirley 269). In the previous world map, Van Geelkercken included a large inland sea in North America, following information from John Smith via Henry Hudson and Jodocus Hondius; with this map, he has done away with that speculation.  Southeast and Northeast Asia are somewhat revised.

In this first state of 1617, South America and Tierra Del Fuego have not yet been revised to include the Le Maire Strait ("Lameers Straet"). Van Geelkercken's map was published shortly after the culmination of Joris van Spilbergen's circumnavigation in 1617, but the information had not made it into the map yet. Shirley complains that the map text erroneously states Spilbergen transited the Strait of Magellan in 1615; this is incorrect. Spilbergen did, in fact, transit the Strait between March 8 and May 1615. 

A Decorative Triumph

Beyond the map's fascinating geographic eccentricities, it is bordered with unusual vignettes that offer a window into the life and times of the Dutch in the early 17th century. Notably, the imagery is imbued with a celebratory appreciation for wine and beer. To the lower left, scenes of winemaking culminate in a vintner savoring his creation. The lower right introduces us to a refined gentleman, comfortably seated by a fireplace indoors, sipping ale from a stein. Outside, the theme of revelry continues with a dancing duo, the man triumphantly raising a stein. These vivid depictions underscore the significance of wine and beer in Dutch culture, encapsulating the society's passion for celebration and the good life. Contrastingly, in the upper left, a maiden proudly holds a bouquet and garlands of flowers, set against a backdrop of scenes of spring, including three men trying to shoot a bird from atop a tall pole, apparently an early Dutch game. The upper right corner presents a figure cherishing fruits and grains, with a montage of harvest activities in the fields and orchards unfurling behind her. These scenes and personifications represent the seasons; the upper left is spring, the upper right is fall, the lower right is winter, and the lower left is summer.

Following Petrus Plancius's 1594 world map, Dutch world map publishing saw a flourishing of decorative borders. This style placed equal emphasis on the map's cartographic details and its ornamental elements. The trend continued into the first half of the 17th century and gave us a series of spectacular and often quite rare world maps.

This map features an elaborate scene of the Last Judgement below the two hemispheres and a depiction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden above the hemispheres. In his previous world map, these scenes were inverted.

Shirley notes of the map:

The signatures on this vividly decorative map indicate the author as Nicolaes Geelkercken and the publisher as Jan Jansson. Geographically, the map is little different from Geelkercken's [1610 world map] . . apart from a redrawn north-east coast of Asia and the omisssion of the lake in North America. However, the rich external decoration is quite new. In the corners there are rural scenes illustrating the four seasons, and, in the upper and lower center parts, panoramas of the Garden of Eden and the last Judgement. Some of the human details, milkmaids, reapers, skaters -- are particularly lively.

States

Shirley (295) lists the following states:

1. Dated 1617, "still shows only Magellan's strait." Shirley states that the Clements Library at the University of Michigan has a First State, however our inquiries showed this to be an artist's reproduction. The other first state appeared in a dealer catalog in 1979. "Robert Douwma, Catalogue 22, 1979, item 103 (state 1, 1617)". To this, we can add one other example recorded in the University of Leiden's catalog.
2. Dated 1618, "four or five examples are extant."
3. Undated. Shirley is unclear about where this state fits in the chronology but implies it falls in between the second and fourth states.
4. Dated 1632.
5. Later states are implied by circumstantial evidence outlined in Shirley 295.

While J. Keunig (in Nicolaas Geelkerken, Imago Mundi XI, 1954, pages 174-177) concluded that the map was first published in 1616, no example is known to have survived with this date, and only two or three known examples of the 1617 edition have survived. Shirley concludes there is no support for Keunig's contention of a 1616 publication.

Shirley seems to indicate that Henricus Hondius had the copperplate substantially modified and reissued in the 1630s: "In 1639 the centre hemispheres were combined with new borders under Henricus Hondius' name to produce a two-sheet world map: see [Shirley] Entry 348." If this is what Shirley meant, he is incorrect. While the 1639 Hondius map closely follows Van Geelkercken's in its cartography, it is printed from a completely new copperplate. The Hondius was later reprinted by Stefano Scolari, which Shirley (348) described as a copy but which is, in fact, from the same copper plate as the Hondius.

Rarity

Shirley says that of the 1617 first state "I have only come across two copies." However, as noted above, one of these was a reproduction. OCLC shows an example in the University of Leiden of which Shirley was unaware. The other example appeared in a Robert Douwma catalog in 1979. This is not the same example as appeared in that catalog. For the record, we quote his description here:

In the flamboyant manner of the time the hemispheres are bordered with fine vignettes: the Garden of Eden and Last Judgement in the centre, and symbolic tableaux of the seasons in the corners. The quality of design and engraving make it one of the most elegant of the period.

This early form already carries a reference to the voyage of Joris van Speilbergen, the most recent addition to the ranks of circumnavigators. He passed through the Straits of Magellan in 1615, shortly ahead of Schouten and Le Maire who chose instead to pioneer the Cape Horn route that Drake had glimpsed in 1578. For thus infringing the Dutch East India Com- pany's privileges Schouten and Le Maire were sent home with Speilbergen and their ship was confiscated. Le Maire's father, though, was powerful enough to win an official injunction prohibiting publication of information about the new passage. This ban lasted for a year after Speilbergen's return to Holland in mid-1617.

Keuning posited a first state of Geelkercken's map in 1616, even though none earlier than 1618 was known to him. However, Speilbergen only reached Batavia in September 1616, and, although news of his successful crossing of the Pacific would have been available in Amster- dam before his own return, Geelkercken could hardly have recorded his passage of the Straits of Magellan in May 1615 on a map published before 1617. The final digit of the date, too, looks original. This must be considered, therefore, the original form of Geelkercken's map, hitherto unknown.

Copies of the map dated 1618 are recorded in Amsterdam, Munich, Rotterdam and the Library of Congress. Keuning describes the 1618 state as lacking Le Maire's Strait. Since this is present on the Amsterdam and Rotter- dam examples, there are presumably two 1618 forms. The British Library holds the 1632 reissue.

Wagner notes (p. 122) that Robert Dudley followed Geelkercken's nomenclature for his own chart of the North-West coast of America.

Nicolaas van Geelkercken, one of the lesser known figures of the highly productive Dutch period at the beginning of the 17th century, was an engraver, cartographer and publisher, who worked variously in Leiden, Amsterdam and Arnhem. He was later to become the Surveyor of Gelderland. His earliest known cartographic production was a world map of 1610, similar to this in size but including portraits of the first four circumnavigators, and placing scenes of the continents where the map of 1617 puts the seasons. Keuning (1954) р. 174, Lof der Zeevaart no. 26, Wagner 275, World on Paper no. 51 (illustrated).