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The First Dutch Sea Chart of Chesapeake Bay
Fine example of the first state Arent Roggeveen's important sea chart of the regions from Albemarle Sound to Delaware Bay, centered on the Chesapeake Bay.
This is the first Dutch sea chart of Chesapeake Bay on such a large scale. Created by Arent Roggeveen, it was included in his very rare maritime atlas Het Brandende Veen.
Roggeveen's work represented a landmark in the coastal charting of North America with a number of regions mapped in larger scale than in any previously printed work. The map extends beyond the scope of earlier maps derived from John Smith's groundbreaking 1612 map, covering an area from Albemarle Sound in the south to the Delaware River in the north.
The depth soundings north of the Delaware River reflect Dutch navigational knowledge, particularly following their acquisition of the Swedish colony in 1655. However, there are no soundings south of this point, suggesting limited exploration by Dutch or Spanish cartographers in the Chesapeake region.
The map incorporates the typical Dutch depiction of the Delaware Peninsula, as introduced by Johannes de Laet in 1630. Roggeveen likely had access to earlier Dutch charts, such as those by Hessel Gerritsz, cartographer for the Dutch East India Company. As noted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science:
Pascarte Vande Virginies Van Baya de la Madelena tot de Zuydt Revier comes from the most important Dutch sea atlas in American history. Roggeveen's sea atlas is the earliest of the West Indies and East Coast of America, and was based upon a large collection of manuscript charts.
In 1692, Jacob Robijn issued a revised version of this chart (see Burden 693), more closely following Johannes van Keulen's 1684 chart.
The present map has no known derivatives.
States
Burden (451) lists two states of the map:
- Bearing no imprint (1675)
- Bearing the imprint of Robyn ex below the title (circa 1680)
Rarity
The map is extremely rare on the market.
OldMaps.com lists two examples for sale (2005 and 2007). We sold an example of the Robijn state in 2014.
No examples recorded at auction in RBH.
Arent Roggeveen was a land surveyor, mathematician, poet and teacher of navigation. Born in Delfshaven, he later moved to Middelburg where both the Dutch East and West India Companies were based. He was employed by both companies as a teacher in the art of navigation. He also helped maintain their collections of hydrographic manuscripts and charts, including Spanish portulanos of the West Indies. In the mid-1660s, Roggeveen compiled a series of large scale charts of the North American coastline, West Indies and later, West Africa. His Het Brandende Veen or The Burning Fen represented a landmark in the coastal charting of North America, with a number of regions mapped in a larger scale than in any previously printed work. Roggeveen arranged for Pieter Goos, one of the leading engravers and publishers of maritime books in Amsterdam to publish the collection. The completed work was the first Dutch pilot that was focused on select areas of the American coastline. Previously, all printed maps and charts that dealt with this coastline were on a much larger scale.
Roggeveen died in 1679. Goos' widow sold the plates to Jacob Robijn, who reissued the maps with his name added to the title, but otherwise unchanged, in 1680. Both examples of the map are extremely rare. The atlases were undoubtedly published in limited quantities. Working sea charts and pilots from the 17th Century are inherently rare due to the nature of their use aboard ships. The vast majority of them were either destroyed by use or destroyed intentionally when new updated versions were obtained.
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