Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium Et Virginia

Leiden, 1630. No Binding. Very Good. 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 inches. Fine early hand color; minor mended split, light offsetting, else excellent. Scarce. "First printed map of New Netherlands as well as the first printed map that names New Amsterdam and Manhattan . . ." (Schwartz). It is also the first collectible map to correctly show Manhattan as an island. According to McCorkle, this is also the first map with the place name Massachusetts. This landmark work places the Dutch North American settlements in their geographic context just five years after the founding of New Amsterdam. Though itself a scarce map, De Laet's map had a long publishing life in the many issues of Jansson's close re-engravings of it of 1636 and 1647. De Laet's is also among earliest acquirable maps to represent any of the Great Lakes. 'Grand Lac' on the map has generally been thought to be Lake Superior, which would make 'Lac de Yroquois' Lake Huron. However, given the early date of the map, it seems more likely that it is Lakes Erie and Ontario represented on the map, though there is little resemblance in shape and alignment. The map also includes a well-detailed inset of Bermuda, which is one of the earliest separate maps of the island, pre-dating the other Dutch maps of island by Blaeu and Hondius. Johannes De Laet was a principal player in the founding of New Netherlands; he was a Director of the Dutch West India Company, which sponsored its settlement, and he also owned a large tract of land in the area of Albany. He therefore would have had access to surveys and information from Dutch colonists, which explains how he produced this fine map at such an early date. Burden 231; McCorkle 630.1; Schwartz/Ehrenberg, pl. 57, p. 103; Augustyn/ Cohen, Manhattan in Maps, pp. 26-7.