1647 Dudley Nautical Map of the Mouth of the Amazon River

This is a beautiful, first edition example of Robert Dudley's rare 1647 nautical chart of the mouth of the Amazon River, Brazil. It appeared in Dudley's Dell'Arcano del Mare, first nautical atlas to cover the whole world, and the first to be produced by an Englishman. It was also the first sea atlas to consistently employ the Mercator projection, making the work useful in actual navigation.

A Closer Look

It covers the region surrounding the mouth of the Amazon from French Guiana (Guiana) to the mouth of the Mearim River and the Baía de São Marcos in Brazil. Although covering only the mouth of the Amazon River, this is one of the earliest maps to show any part of this area at a large scale. The whole is rendered in the inimitable style of Antonio Francesco Lucini, who engraved all the charts appearing in Arcano del Mare. (A monumental effort - the plates required five thousand pounds of copper to complete the work.) Lucini's superb calligraphy and balanced composition - including attractively-engraved ships and compass roses - contribute to making Dudley's charts some of the most elegant, distinct, and desirable printed cartographic works of the 17th century.

Europeans in Brazil

The mouth of the Amazon had been the subject of European exploration as far back as the 16th century, notably by Francisco de Orellana between 1541 and 1546. It was he who named the river, having heard of all-female (Amazon!) tribes in the vicinity. It would be the Dutch, however, who pioneered the establishment of trade to the interior, and this chart reflects their efforts.

Sources

Dudley sailed on expeditions across the Atlantic, and his work reflects sensitivity to the needs of the mariner. Of his data, however, only two charts were derived substantially from his own journeys (the charts pertaining to the coast of Guiana and the mouth of the Orinoco River). As is the case with many of his American charts, Dudley drew heavily on the best Dutch sources available, in most cases the work of Hessel Gerritsz. The general outline here resembles the Dutch chartmaker's more general 1625 map, appearing in Johannes de Laet's Nieuwe wereldt, ofte, Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien. Dudley focuses on a narrower area, revealing greater detail than Gerritsz. The Dutch forts along the Xingu River shown here, Orange and Nassau, did not appear on Gerritsz' 1625 chart but they were discussed in De Laet's accompanying text accompanying - a circumstance which may explain Dudley's having transposed the locations of the two forts. These, De Laet noted, were settled in 1599 or 1600 by merchants from Vlissingen.

In addition to forts Orange and Nassau, the chart also identifies the Dutch supply depot of Waterhuis; the city of 'Pinaro' near the mouth of the Maranhan River may reflect Portuguese settlement in the Maranhão.

In 1629, Portuguese forces under Pedro de Teixeira drove the Dutch out of the region. It is just credible that Dudley may have had access to the work of Teixeira's chronicler, Cristóbal de Acuña, but the absence of Para - the starting point of Acuña and Teixeira's journey up the Amazon - from the mouth of the river argues against such.

Publication History and Census

This chart was engraved in copper by Antonio Francesco Lucini in 1647 for inclusion in the first edition of Robert Dudley's Dell'Arcano del Mare. A further 1661 edition of the chart exists, distinguishable by the presence of the notation 'L.°6°' in the cartouche. We note a single example of the work cataloged in OCLC in the collection at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Separate examples of the chart are listed in the collections of the Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library and the British Library, but they occasionally appear on the market.