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Description

Nice old color example of the first edition of Arent Roggeveen's map of New Jersey, Western Long Island and Manhattan, which first appeared in Roggeveen's Brandende Veen in 1675.

Roggeveen's map is one of the earliest printed sea charts to focus on the area between Manhattan and the Delaware River. The map is drawn largely from Pieter Goos's Paskaerte Van de Zuydt en Noordt Revier in Nieu Nederlant Streckende van Cabo Ninloopen tot Rechkewach, first printed in 1666, but includes more of Long island and is oriented with West at the top (Goos' map is oriented with North Northwest At the top). /gallery/detail/009ms.

The map shows Fort Casimer, but pre-dates the appearance of Philadelphia. Fort Cristina is also shown. Colacke hoecke on the east bank of the Delaware River is the only new place name.

Roggeveen's chart of the area from Manhattan to the mouth of the Delaware River is the second printed chart to focus on New Jersey and the Delaware Valley. The Dutch had established the colony of New Netherlands in 1624, but by 1638, Sweden had established a competing / encroaching settlement (in part with the help of an alienated Dutch settler), with the founding of Ft. Christina. In 1651, the Dutch established Ft. Kasimer on the Delaware to counter the Swedish claims. The issue was in dispute until Peter Styvesant's capture of Ft. Christina in 1655.

This is the first edition of the chart, with later editions by Robyn (1680) and Loots (1717 circa), each of which is revised to include the name of the publisher in the title cartouche.

Condition Description
Old Color. Minor fold split at the bottom of the map, just entering printed image.
Arent Roggeveen Biography

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.