INDEX

WHO DID DISCOVER AUSTRALIA?

COLONIAL EXPLORATION

The Discovery of Australia: Ancient and historic maps relating to Australia

17th Century

In terms of Australian discovery and exploration, this was the century in which the Dutch, more often by accident than design, discovered the western and northern coasts of the continent, as well as sections of the southern coast to the east of Cape Leeuwin, and parts of Tasmania.

Duyfken map of the north coast of Australia, 1606

WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU 1571-1638
Founded one of history's greatest cartographic publishing firms in 1599. Using skills learned from the celebrated Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Blaeu set up shop in Amsterdam as a globe and scientific instrument maker. He soon expanded the business to include map, chart and book publishing. By 1608, he had already published a fine world map and a popular marine atlas. He then began planning a major atlas intended to include the most up-to-date maps of the entire world. In 1630 he purchased 37 plates of the Mercator Atlas from Jodocus Hondius II. He added these to his own collection and published the Atlantis Appendix, which contained 60 maps. Five years later he issued the first two volumes of his planned world atlas, Atlas Novus or the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.
About this same time he was appointed Hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The VOC contributed significantly to the wealth and prosperity of the United Netherlands, and Blaeu's prestigious appointment firmly established his reputation within the highly competitive field of Dutch mapmakers. In 1638 Willem died and the business passed to his sons, Joan and Cornelis, who continued and expanded their father's ambitious plans.

  • Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula, 1635
    Perhaps the most famous world map of the seventeenth century, Blaeu's map is "celebrated as one of the supreme examples of the map maker's art". The map was actually engraved about 1606. Allegorical representations of the sun, moon, and five known planets form a top panel, and illustrations of the seven wonders of the world make up a bottom panel. On the left side are representations of the elements, and along the right are the four seasons. Insets within Terra Australis show the two Polar regions. This is the first map to show accurately the northern coast of Australia including the Gulf of Carpentaria, and to show Australia and New Guinea as separate countries.
  • See also similar world map by John Speed, 1627
  • India quæ Orientalis dicitur, et Insulæ Adiacentes." Amseterdam: J. Blaeu, 1643-50.
    A highly decorative map of southeast Asia and one of the first printed maps to show any part of Australia. The map was by Willem (Guilielmus) Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638), the progenitor of the famous Blaeu cartographic firm of Amsterdam. This map is a premier example of the Blaeu output. It shows southeast Asia, extending as far north as Japan and west to include India. It was one of the best maps available at the time because Blaeu was the official cartographer for the Dutch East India Co. (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC.), as is indicated by the dedication and coat-of-arms of Laurens Real, Governor-General of the VOC. With access to the information gathered by this company, Blaeu was able to produce a map of great detail showing this region which was the source of most of the wealth of the Dutch.
    Of particular interest is one of the first printed depictions of any part of Australia, shown along the bottom and in the bottom right. In 1606, Willem Jansz made what was probably the first landing by a European on Australia, along the Cape York Peninsula (Carpentaria). While Blaeu would have had access to this discovery, the VOC wanted the information kept secret until the they had a chance to see what profit Australia could offer them, so Blaeu suppressed the information until he first showed those discoveries on this map when it was first issued in 1634. Besides the places named along the Cape York Peninsula, Blaeu also shows the results of the explorations, along the northwest coast, of Dirck Hartog ("Landt van d'Eendracht") in 1616 and Gerrit Frederikszoon de Wit ("G.F. de Wits landt") in 1628.

JAN JANSSON 1588-1664
Johannes Janssonius, more commonly known to us as Jan Jansson, was born in Arnhem where his father was a bookseller and publisher (Jan Janszoon the Elder). In 1612 he married the daughter of the cartographer and publisher Jodocus Hondius, and then set up in business in Amsterdam as a book publisher. In 1616 he published his first maps of France and Italy and from then onwards he produced a very large number of maps, perhaps not quite rivalling those of the Blaeu family but running a very close second in quantity and quality. From about 1630 to 1638 he was in partnership with his brother-in-law, Henricus Hondius, issuing further editions of the Mercator/Hondius atlases to which his name was added. On the death of Henricus he took over the business, expanding the atlas still further, until eventually he published an 11-volume Atlas Major on a scale similar to Blaeu's Atlas Major.
The first full edition of Jansson's English County Maps was published in 1646 but some years earlier he issued a number of British maps in the Mercator/Hondius/Jansson series of atlases (1636-44). In general appearance Jansson's maps are very similar to those of Blaeu and, in fact, were often copied from them, but they tend to be more flamboyant and, some think, more decorative.
After Jansson's death his heirs published a number of maps in an Atlas Contractus in 1666 and later still many of the plates of his British maps were acquired by Pieter Schenk and Gerard Valck, who published them again in 1683 as separate maps.

  • Polus Antarcticus
    Map Maker: Jan Jansson. Amsterdam, 1637
    Hondius' decorative map of the South Polar region, predating the first appearance of New Zealand and Van Dieman's Land. The supposed coastline of the unknown southern continent continues to appear. Includes notes regarding the affirmation of the discovery of islands by Magellan and Hernando Galego. Nice detail in Australia showing t' Lant van P. Nuyts discovered in January 1627, Edel's Lant discovered in 1619, Eendrachts discoveries in 1616, as well as notes mentioning Williams Renier and Dirck Hertog and several other place names and early contacts with Australia.

JODOCUS HONDIUS 1563-1612 - HENRICUS HONDIUS (son) 1587-1638
Jodocus Hondius, one of the most notable engravers of his time, is known for his work in association with many of the cartographers and publishers prominent at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century.
A native of Flanders, he grew up in Ghent, apprenticed as an instrument and globe maker and map engraver. In 1584, to escape the religious troubles sweeping the Low Countries at that time, he fled to London where he spent some years before finally settling in Amsterdam about 1593. In the London period he came into contact with the leading scientists and geographers of the day and engraved maps in The Mariner's Mirrour, the English edition of Waghenaer's Sea Atlas, as well as others with Pieter van den Keere, his brother-in-law. No doubt his temporary exile in London stood him in good stead, earning him an international reputation, for it could have been no accident that Speed chose Hondius to engrave the plates for the maps in The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine in the years between 1605 and 1610.
In 1604 Hondius bought the plates of Mercator's Atlas which, in spite of its excellence, had not competed successfully with the continuing demand for the Ortelius Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. To meet this competition Hondius added about 40 maps to Mercator's original number and from 1 6o6 published enlarged editions in many languages, still under Mercator's name but with his own name as publisher. These atlases have become known as the Mercator/Hondius series. The following year the maps were reengraved in miniature form and issued as a pocket Atlas Minor. After the death of Jodocus Hondius the Elder in 1612, work on the two atlases, folio and miniature, was carried on by his widow and sons, Jodocus II and Henricus, and eventually in conjunction with Jan Jansson in Amsterdam. In all, from 1606 onwards, nearly 50 editions with increasing numbers of maps with texts in the main European languages were printed. Summaries of these issues are given under the entry for Gerard Mercator.

 MELCHISEDECH THEVENOT 1620-1692
A traveller and author of books on the early voyages of discovery, Thevenot produced some striking maps, perhaps not always his own work but no less interesting because of that. In particular, his map of Australia, the first by a Frenchman, showed the continent's uninterrupted eastern coastline and the latest information on Tasman's voyages.

  • Hollandia Nova and Terre Australe, 1663
    Thevenot's famous Map of New Holland, Paris 1663, is said to be copied from a map by J. Blaeu, dated Amsterdam 1659. The latter is included in the Mammoth Atlas preserved in the King's Library at the British Museum and entitled, Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus. Because of its enormous bulk-this Atlas is known as "the largest book in the world" and was presented by the Dutch merchants to Charles II - the attempt to photograph Blaeu's original was reluctantly abandoned and the Thevenot map substituted in its place.
    See also     Boneparte Map, 1664 and Pieter Goos' Indian Ocean map (see below).

PIETER GOOS 1615-1675
Pieter Goos continued and extended his the business of his father, Abraham Goos, and became one of the group of well-known engravers of sea charts active in Amsterdam in the middle years of the seventeenth century. In common with Colom, Doncker and Jacobsz he published a pilot guide, the Zee-Spiegel, basing it on plates obtained from Jacobsz. This went through many editions in different languages under the startling titles so popular at the time. In addition to publishing his Zee-Spiegel in the usual Parts 1 and II (Europe and Atlantic coasts) and Part III (Mediterranean) he broke new ground in preparing Parts IV and V, covering charts and sailing directions for the coasts of the West Indies and West Africa. The later editions of the Zee Atlas were published by his widow who eventually sold the publishing rights of the Atlas and of the Zee-Spiegel to Jacobus Robijn.

GIOVANNI BATTISTA NICOLOSI
Rare four sheet map of Asia, published in Rome by GB Nicolosi. In 1652, motivated by Sanson's new work, the Propoganda Fide of Rome hired Nicolosi to compose an atlas, which became his Dell' Hercole e Studio Geografico, published in 1660 and 1671. The 4 sheet maps of the continents have become celebrated rarities, which incorporate Nicolosi's meticulous work with a quite unusual presentation style.

  • Asia Ex Conatibus Geographicis Ioannis Baptistae Nicolosii S.T.D.
    Map Maker: Giovanni Battista Nicolosi, Rome,1660
    Irian Jaya is a separate island, based upon an error in maps dating to 1590 confusing Irian Jaya with Seram. The treatment of Japan is interesting and highly detailed. The Great Wall of China is shown. Formosa is named. Korea is correctly shown as a peninsula. North of China, the cartographic information goes very sparse. The mythical Terra di Iesso is noted with a speculative coastliune. The treament of the Philippines and Tibet are of great interest. Marco Polo's Beach is shown below Java and Timor, foreshadowing the location of Australia. Hogeland and Batavia are shown on a poorly known stretch of land which would bcome Carpentaria in northern Australia, with the strait between New Guinea and Australia still poorly charted.

CLAES JANSZ. VISSCHER 1587-1652 - NICOLAES VISSCHER 1 (son) 1618-79 NICOLAES VISSCHER II (grandson) 1649-1702
For nearly a century the members of the Visscher family were important art dealers and map publishers in Amsterdam. The founder of the business, C. J. Visscher, had premises near to those of Pieter van den Keere and Jodocus Hondius whose pupil he may have been. From about 1620 he designed a number of individual maps, including one of the British Isles, but his first atlas consisted of maps printed from plates bought from van den Keere and issued as they stood with some additions of his own, including historical scenes of battles and sieges for which he had a high reputation. Some maps bear the latinized form of the family name: Piscator. After Visscher's death his son and grandson, both of the same name, issued a considerable number of atlases, constantly revised and brought up to date but most of them lacking an index and with varying contents. The widow of Nicholaes Visscher II carried on the business until it finally passed into the hands of Pieter Schenk.

  • Indiae Orientalis nec non Insualrum Adiacentium Nova Description
    Amsterdam,1670
    Highly detailed example of Visscher's map of the East Indies, extending from India to the Marianas and New Guinea. An early northern portion of Australia is shown, with nice detail along the coastline, although a non-committal potential attachment ot New Guinea is still shown. Excellent detail in the Philippines, China and Southeast Asia. The map extends to Tibet and the Sources of the Ganges and Eastern Persia.

FREDERICK DE WIT 1630-1706
De Wit was one of the most prominent and successful map engravers and publishers in Amsterdam in the period following the decline of the Blaeu and Jansson establishments, from which he acquired many copper plates when they were dispersed at auction. His output covered most aspects of map making: sea charts, world atlases, an atlas of the Netherlands, 'town books' covering plans of towns and cities in the Netherlands and Europe, and wall maps. His work, notable for the beauty of the engraving and colouring, was very popular and editions were issued many years after his death by Pieter Mortier and Covens and Mortier.

  • Novissima et Accuratissima Septentrionalis ac Meridionalis Americae
    Map Maker: Frederick De Wit, Amsterdam, 1680
    De Wit's well regarded map of the Americas and Pacific. Includes California as an Island, an early depiction of the Great Lakes (not present in Visscher's edition of the map), the Straits of Anian, a mythical Terra Esonis extending as a land bridge from Asia and misprojected South America. In the South Pacific, the first parts of Australia are now shown (Quiri Regio), as are the Salomon Islands and Nova Guinea. The map predates La Salle's information on the interior of North America, but includes excellent detail in Canada and the East Coast of North America, noting the Dutch Possessions, the Iroquois regions, N. Anglia, New Amsterdam, the Cheaspeak, Plymouth, and many Indian Place names.

CORNELIS DANKERTS THE ELDER 1603-56 JUSTUS DANKERTS (son) 1635-1701
The Dankerts family, of whom the above were the most important, was very large and ramifying having had a lot of members who were active in engraving on an artistic level. In this short view, however, we are dealing mainly with those who took part in the atlas production.
The family's roots can be traced back to Cornelis Danckerts (1536-1595), a carpenter in Amsterdam. From his marriage with Lijsbet Cornelisdr two sons are known: Cornelis Danckerts de Rij (1561-1634) and Danckert Cornelisz (ca. 1580-1625). Cornelis and his descendants called themselves Danckerts de Rij. Danckerts Cornelisz who is at the root of the line we are now interested in was first a skipper then a stone merchant. He married Lijstbeth Jansdr, shortly after the turn of the century. Several members of his branch were well-known engravers-etchers, mapmakers and printsellers (Keuning, 1955). Danckert Cornelisz had two sons: Cornelis Danckerts (1603-1656) and Dancker Danckerts (1614-?).
Cornelis the elder brother established himself as an engraver, map- and artprint producer, printer and publisher in Amsterdam in the early 1630s. His shop was flourishing under his, the father's and his sons' and grandsons' direction in the second half of the 17th century as far as 1717 when the grandson Cornelis died. (Hereafter for distinguishing Cornelis the firm's founder and Cornelis, the grandson, Cornelis (I) and Cornelis (II) will be used, respectively.) Cornelis (I) was an eminent engraver producing a number of single-sheet maps and wall maps. Besides his own publications, he was working for reknown personalities of the time such as the famous John Speed (1552-1629), historian and mapmaker, "the father of the English atlases" or for Petrus Bertius (1565-1629), the illustrious geography professor at Leiden University (Tooley, 1979).
At Cornelis (I)' death (1656), the elder son, Dancker (1634-1666) took the shop over then at his early passing the younger brother Justus (1635-1701) who had been a stone merchant succeded his brother in direction of the firm. (As distinguishing marks (I) will be used at Justus, the father's name and (II) at the son's.) The Danckerts family's map producing and -publishing office had its apogee at the time of Justus (I) and of his three sons Theodorus (I) (1663-1727), Cornelis (II) (1664-1717) and Justus (II) (?-1692).
Between 1669-1701 their shop was run in the "Calverstraet in the Danckbaerheyt" (Danckbaerheyt=Thankfulness). Cornelis (II) married Geertrui Magnus, the daughter of a famous contemporary Amsterdam bookbinder, Albert Magnus and moved into the house of Magnus' widow on the "Nieuwendijk in de Atlas". (Albert Magnus had died some years before.) Thus after 1696 two print shops of the Danckerts were being run in Amsterdam and from that time onwards on different publications, also on maps and on atlas' title- and index-pages, Cornelis (II) used this new address.
The Danckerts's firm's closing down was gradually taking place. The first harder breaking could be caused by the general depression in 1713 when Justus (I)' heirs decided to sell a part of the map and atlas stock with lots of copperplates. The final, full stopping occured at the time of the last surviving brother, Theodorus (I) in 1727 when the remaining estate was also sold. The copperplates of the maps were bought by Reiner and Josua Ottens, first-rate Amsterdam map- and atlas publishers in the first part of the 18th century. Following the general custom of the time, the Ottens erased the Danckerts names and addresses replacing them with their own

  • Exactissima Asiae Delineation
    Map Maker: Justus Danckerts, Amsterdam, 1685
    Danckerts scarce map of Asia and the Northern part of Australia, called Hollandia Nova. Extends North to the unknown coasts of Yesso. Interesting projection of Japan. Nice detail in China, including naming Formosa. Several place names on the Northern Australian Coast.

"Mer De Sud Ou Pacifique Contenant L'Isle De Californe, les costes de Mexique, Du Perou, Chili et le Detroit De Magellanique.."
Amsterdam 1693
A large striking chart shows the coasts of North America with all principal harbors, and showing California as an island. Locates Central America and the West Indies, the western coast of South America; Tierra Del Fuego and the Straits of Magellan. Chart encompasses the entire Pacific Ocean with the latest south sea discoveries including part of Van Diemen's land (Tasmania) & New Zealand. A small portion of the northern coast of Australia appears joined to New Guinea, and the islands of Japan have been partially discovered. Numerous small islands appear dotted over the Ocean which is crossed by rhumb lines and the chart includes 2 decorative compass roses.