This copy is copyright protected.
Copyright © 2025 Geographicus Rare Antique Maps
1685 Roggeveen Map of Bermuda (First Nautical Chart of Bermuda)
Bermuda-roggeveen-1685$25,000.00
Title
Pascaert van 't Eÿland la Bermuda of Sommer Ilands en de andere Eÿlanden daer bÿ geleeghen.
1685 (undated) 20.75 x 23.5 in (52.705 x 59.69 cm) 1 : 180000
1685 (undated) 20.75 x 23.5 in (52.705 x 59.69 cm) 1 : 180000
Description
This is a stunning old-color example of Arent Roggeveen's 1675 map of Bermuda, considered to be the first sea chart of the solitary archipelago.
Rare. We note only one separate example, from a Robjin edition, located at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The Het brandende veen verlichtende de kust van Africa ende America, is noted in the collections of 3 institutions in OCLC and at at the Library of Congress. We see no history of the separate map on the market.
A Closer Look
The map is oriented to the north, with coverage embracing the entire Bermuda archipelago and some of the surrounding seas. The map offers no inland detail but illustrates the coasts and seas well, with a particular focus on the ring of reefs encircling the south half of the islands. Where the map falls short is its failure to illustrate the even more complex and larger network of reefs, shoals, and rocks north of Bermuda. This error was the bane of many ships, who, seeking to avoid the southern reefs, sailed northward only to run aground on the unmapped submarine dangers. Nonetheless, this chart remained the dominant mapping of Bermuda until the 1738 Lemprière / Toms map.Publication History and Census
This map was drafted by Arent Roggeveen and engraved by Pieter Goos. Unlike most maps in the Roggeveen atlas, it is not based on secret charts maintained by Dutch West India Company (Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie) captains; rather, it is derived from English sources. In this case, the source is likely the second Richard Norwood survey (1663 - 65). This survey was never published but survives in its original manuscript in Bermuda and in a single Thames School copy by Thomas Clarke (his only known work) housed at the John Carter Brown Library. How Roggeveen acquired a copy of this tightly guarded and uncirculated English chart is a mystery, but it may have been captured by Dutch WIC privateers or otherwise clandestinely obtained. It was first published in 1675 in Roggeveen's legendary nautical atlas Het brandende veen verlichtende de kust van Africa ende America or 'The Burning Fen'. There were three later printings with no known changes in 1680, 1689, and 1698 by Jacobus Robijn, who acquired the map plates from Goos' window.Rare. We note only one separate example, from a Robjin edition, located at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The Het brandende veen verlichtende de kust van Africa ende America, is noted in the collections of 3 institutions in OCLC and at at the Library of Congress. We see no history of the separate map on the market.
CartographerS
Arent Roggeveen (1658 - November 27, 1679) was a Dutch hydrographer, cartographer, mathematician, poet, and astronomer active in the second half of the 17th century. Robgeveen was born in Delfshaven. Little is known of his education, but in 1658, he settled as a schoolmaster in Middleburg, seat of both the EIC and VOC. He later worked as a surveyor and a measurements expert in the wine industry - positions that made him reasonably wealthy. Around 1670, the VOC contracted him to compile and rectify their disparate archive of highly-secret sea charts. These were engraved and published in 1675 by Roggeveen and Pieter Goos. Roggeveen became obsessed with the notation of Terre Australis; a speculated continued occupying much of the southern hemisphere. In 1767, he received a patent from the Staten-Generaal to lead an expedition of discovery to the South Seas, but was unable to attract the necessary investment; it did not launch until the early 17th century, when his son, Jacob Roggeveen (1659 – 1729), made the voyage from 1721-22, in the process discovering Easter Island. More by this mapmaker...
Pieter Goos (1616 - 1675) was a Dutch cartographer, engraver, publisher and bookseller. Goos was born in Amsterdam, the son of cartographer, globemaker, and engraver Abraham Goos (1590 - 1643). Goos followed in his father's footsteps as a mapmaker and engraver, working with Petrus Kaerius, C.J. Visscher, John Speed, Henricus Hondius, and Johannes Janssonius, among others. Goos began publishing on his own account in 1657 and, from 1666, began issuing a series of well-received nautical atlases. His De Zee-Atlas Ofte Water-Wereld is considered one of the most extraordinary maritime atlases of the Dutch Golden Age. His most famous and elusive atlas, however, was 'The Burning Fen,' Het brandende veen verlichtende de kust van Africa ende America, a collaboration with the mathematician Arent Roggeveen (1658 - 1679). When Goos died in 1675, his widow, Margareta van den Keere, sold his copper printing plates to the publisher Jacobus Robijn (c. 1649 - 1707), who reissued many of them. Learn More...
Condition
Excellent. Light transference. Old color.
References
Palmer, M., The Mapping of Bermuda, (ed. R. V. Tooley). Koeman Rog 1 (32). Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Cartes et plans, GE SH 18 PF 119 DIV 5 P 2 D. OCLC 764057892.