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Description

Scarce antique map of Scandinavia and the Baltic region, engraved by Abraham Goos, after Ander Bure's map, and published by Nicholas Visscher I in Amsterdam around 1650.

The map is based upon Anders Bure's six-sheet map of Sweden in 1626.

Anders Bure (1571-1646) was one of the most important mapmakers in the history of Scandinavian cartography. Bure was a mathematician, instruments maker, and cartographer by his training. He was the Secretary of Gustav II Adolf, the King of Sweden, as well as the Chief Architect and the highest official on the topography of the Swedish kingdom. In 1626, he produced a map of the Swedish kingdom on six separate sheets, Orbis Arctoi Nova et Accurata Delineatio, which was copied used by Dutch mapmakers, Jodocus Hondius, Willem Janszoon Blaeu, and Nicholas Visscher as the basis for their maps of northern Europe.

The publication of Bure's six-sheet map in 1626 brought along the revival of map drawing in the country, including Livonia. In 1688 it was decided to publish a new map which had to be a step forward from the Bure's map. Under the circumstances of constant war, the map sources were considered confidential material and Erik Dahlberg was the only authorized person to use them in map drawing. However, only a single copy of his atlas was published in 1698. Some of the material for this atlas was later used by a French cartographer, Delisle, in compiling his atlas published in 1706. Only in 1735, it was permitted to publish the maps of several counties of Sweden.