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Fantastic sea chart of the eastern Sweden coastline, showing the Swedish islands of Gotland, Oland, and Bornholm, as well as the region of Götaland. This map dates from a later edition of Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer's Thresoor der Zeevaert, this edition of the map bears the imprint of Benjamin Wright.

The map shows the Swedish coastline from its southernmost tip through to the island region near Stockholm. The map is incredibly detailed from a navigational point of view, with numerous soundings shown, as well as many smaller reefs and other important features. The map is also highly decorative, containing two sailing ships, a sea monster, a compass rose, and three cartouches, with two versions of the title in both French and Dutch.

The deletion of the platemark in the lower-left reading nineteen reflects the misnumbering of the Thresoor after the seventeenth plate following the insertion of three prior plates.

This is a remarkably decorative navigational chart of the utmost rarity.

Waghenaer's Thresoor der Zeevaert

Following Waghenaer's success with his Spiegel der Zeevaert, he decided to publish the oblong Thresoor as a more practical seafarer's guide. The book first appeared with twenty-two charts folding charts and numerous additional coastal profiles in 1592 in a Dutch edition and was subsequently republished for the next two decades.

While the Spiegel represented the first-ever navigational atlas, the Thresoor represents something that was accessible to a greater audience and contained more up-to-date and usable information. The plates bore both French and Dutch titles, indicating that Waghenaer intended for several editions to be published from the start of his project. Later plates saw several changes, and they were replaced with fresh plates in about 1600. Many of the new plates bore the imprint of Benjamin Wright or Josua van den Ende, reflecting their involvement in the project the following employment by Plancius. The final edition was published in Dutch in 1608, after which the dominance of Blaue's Het Licht der Zeevaert drove the Thresoor out of print.

Rarity

The nautical charts from the Thresoor der Zeevaert are exceedingly rare. This the first time in nearly twenty years that we have handled a map from this series. We find no examples of this map having ever appeared for sale. Rare Book Hub lists no examples of the Thresoor as having traded hands.