1630 Frans Huys / Pieter Bast Plan of Leiden, The Netherlands

This is a rare, beautifully engraved, and influential c. 1630 Frans Huys and Peter Bast map of Leiden, The Netherlands, at the time of Rembrandt. It is one of just two known examples of the map, in this state, and is unrecorded in institutional collections.

A Closer Look

It updates, annotates, and embellishes the 1601 plan of the city produced by Pieter Bast. The original Bast plan and Huys' update survive in single copies at the University of Leiden. This second state of the Huys version (bearing his imprint, lacking in the first state) is not cataloged in any institutional collection and has only appeared on the market in one other copy. Nevertheless, it was an influential work. Bast's was the standard plan of Leiden for many years, and Huys' updated version provided the basis for Joan Blaeu's popular 1649 plan.

The plan is printed to two sheets, joined one above the other as issued. It depicts in meticulous detail the city of Leiden after the 1611 northward expansion. This is the modern city center: the neighborhoods of the Pieterswijk, the Academy District, De Camp and Maredorp, the Oude Morsch, and the Havenwijks. The city's distinctive architecture - its residential and defensive structures, as well as its churches and palaces - are depicted in perspective to give the plan the impact of a bird's-eye view. Leiden's walls, windmills, streets, and canals are all beautifully presented. The Rhine, in particular, teems with life. At center is the Burcht van Leiden, the oldest surviving castle in the Netherlands.

Bast's Plan

The greater portion of this plan, as appears on the lower sheet, was surveyed and drawn around 1600 by Pieter Jacobsz Bast (1569 - 1605). This Dutch engraver and surveyor, although now little known, was instrumental in moving Dutch urban cartography from the pictorial form (exemplified by the Cologne publishers Braun and Hogenberg) to a more scientific form based on surveys. Bast lived and worked in Leiden in his final years and produced his plan in conjunction with a panorama of the city. His 1601 engraving, which survives in a single known copy at the University of Leiden, provided the basis for the present work up to the Oude Vest Canal, which was unrealized during his lifetime. The original Bast plan shows city walls overlooking the future course of the canal.

The Revision

Leading up to 1611, the city's walls were extended to the north. The new Oude Vest and Langegracht Canals were dug, and a new wall with a defensive moat was constructed. These additions encompassed the modern neighborhoods of Oude Morsch, Molenbuurt, North Vest, and Havenwijk North. An updated version of Bast's plan by an unknown engraver was released around 1611. The sole known example of the first state of this second plate is held at the University of Leiden. The University's example lacks a printer's imprint, and the cataloger provides no author.

Many new structures, such as the Reinsburgerpoort at the west entrance, are introduced in the present edition. Other significant updates include extensive decorative elements and annotations. The present work exhibits an elaborate martial vignette in the lower left and a beautiful scale cartouche in the lower right. In the upper left, instead of the dedicatory cartouche appearing on the 1601 plate, the present work has a legend enumerating 135 locations, themselves numbered on the plan. The noted items feature not only the usual churches and municipal structures but also streets, schools, and neighborhoods. In addition to the numbered items are abundant place names added to the plan itself, including markets, boulevards, streets, gates, and the canals themselves.

Based on the additions mentioned above, the terminus post quem (earliest possible date) of the second edition first state is 1611. The present second edition second state example differs from the copy at the University of Leiden in that it bears the imprint of Frans Huys, noting that the piece was produced in Leiden in 1630.

City of Rembrandt

The map presents Leiden as it stood before 1630, when Rembrandt was a resident. (The illustrious painter did not leave for the up-and-coming Amsterdam until 1631.) The Latin school where he had his first education is marked on the map at #74, the Grootschool, as is the University which he attended prior to abandoning academia for his apprenticeship.

Publication History and Census

This plan is extremely rare. It was based on the plan engraved in Leiden by Pieter Bast in 1601, which survives in a sole known copy in the University of Leiden. This second state second plate was engraved in Leiden, probably by Frans Huys, no later than 1630. A first state of this second plate is held by the University of Leiden in a sole, anonymous copy. This second state of the plate, bearing Huys' 1630 imprint, appears in no institutional collections and has appeared only once on the market, in 2007.