1664 Blaeu Map of the Lesser Antilles with new St. Kitts Detail

This is a handsome, first edition example of Blaeu's 1662 map of the Lesser Antilles, in an attractive original color example in superb condition. It appeared only in the four final editions of Joan Blaeu's Atlas Maior; consequently, it is among the scarcest of the Blaeu Atlas maps.

A Closer Look

The map is presented as a chart, embellished with rhumb lines with a fine compass rose at the center. It is oriented to the west, with north to the right hand side of the chart. The orientation allows the presentation of the islands in a graceful arc from Puerto Rico, to Trinidad and Terra Firma. The whole is titled Canibales Insulae, the islands of the cannibals, a reflection of centuries of sensationalistic reports of the Carib people who had settled the islands in successive waves from South America. The chart includes the Virgin Islands, Guadelupe, Martinique, Barbados, and Granada among others, but most significantly St Kitts/ Christopher.

Sources and Improvements

As is the case with many of the Blaeu maps of the Americas, this delineation of the Antilles is derived from the work of Hessel Gerritz, who was the official chartmaker of Dutch West India. Gerritz' geography, which appears to have originated in a 1627 manuscript, would appear throughout the 17th century in the maps of De Laet, Blaeu, Hondius and Jansson, but never before in this form and orientation. Blaeu's delineation here appears to have been chosen to specifically improve on the map of these islands appearing in the competing Jansson/Hondius atlas, Insula S. Juan de Puerto Rico Caribes. That map, oriented to the east, is slightly broader, including all of Puerto Rico and more of Terra Firma. As with Blaeu's work, most of the islands are presented with minimal detail. Jansson's map added new placenames to St. Kitts: Fransche Ree, Jeans' Point, Engelsche Ree, Caerls Cast and Solferberg; on the island itself is a Fransche F(ort) and a salt pan. Jansson's map made little effort (and perhaps was of insufficient scale) to locate these features with any precision. In contrast, Blaeu's map affords enough space to mark the locations of these placenames on the island itself.

The effort to improve the detail for this island in particular reflects its importance as a prize contested over by the European colonial powers: the English began efforts to colonize in 1624, only to find a trio of Frenchmen already there; after a year of the English struggling to maintain their colony, a French ship arrived. By 1627, the English and French had divided the island into quarters with the English controlling the middle of the island and the French the end quarters. The placenames appearing here reflect that situation. Fransch Fort is the French Fort Louis, for example. Carels Cast. is the English Fort Charles. The presence of salt pans and a sulphur mine signal the islands' strategic importance, beyond the tobacco and sugar plantations which European colonizers were trying to establish there. Blaeu probably cribs these details from the 1650 Sanson map of the island, adding them to Gerritz' geography without altering it significantly.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved for inclusion in Joan and Cornelius Blaeu's monumental 1662 Atlas Maior. It was included in only four editions of were published. The Dutch edition, in which this map was included, was printed in 1664. Further publication of the atlas was curtailed by the 1672 fire which put an end to the Blaeu's publishing dynasty. Those maps (such as this) that were produced specifically for it are among the Blaeu family's scarcest maps. We see only nine examples of the present map in institutional collections in various editions; none are identified as belonging to this Dutch edition.