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Unrecorded early De Wit terrestrial & maritime atlas coloured by a contemporary hand

WIT, Frederick de.
Atlas.

A terrestrial and a maritime world atlas bound and probably issued together, with 2 engraved title-pages, each with a letterpress contents list on the reverse, and each with 27 engr. maps (together 53 double-page and 1 larger folding). With the title-pages, maps, decorations and borders coloured by a contemporary hand, the maps partly in outline.

Amsterdam, Frederick de Wit, (ca. 1676). Imperial folio. Contemporary vellum, green cloth ties. A terrestrial and a maritime world atlas bound and probably issued together, with 2 engraved title-pages, each with a letterpress contents list on the reverse, and each with 27 engr. maps (together 53 double-page and 1 larger folding). With the title-pages, maps, decorations and borders coloured by a contemporary hand, the maps partly in outline.

One of two copies located (neither noted in the literature) of an extremely early De Wit terrestrial world atlas and maritime world atlas bound and probably issued together, but with separate title-pages and contents lists. The terrestrial atlas is the second De Wit is known to have issued with a title-page and has ten maps more than the first. The maritime atlas is the first De Wit is known to have issued with a title-page, though the numbering of the maps suggests there might have been an earlier one not known to survive. Each has a world map: that in the maritime atlas was engraved in 1668 and has beautiful etched scenes combining allegorical and classical figures with representations of the four elements and scenes from contemporary life by Romeyn de Hooghe, who may have also executed the decorations in some of the other maps. The world map in the terrestrial atlas "is one of the most attractive of its time. The brilliant scenes in the corners combine images of the four seasons, the elements, and the signs of the zodiac in a well-balanced and naturalistic way." (Shirley). Other highlights include the sea chart of Europe on 1 1/2 sheets (49.5 x 88.5 cm) with stunning large coats of arms, 4 cartouches, elephants and other animals; the rare 1659 De Wit map of Denmark, omitted from many early De Wit atlases and replaced in later ones; five early maps (one dated 1662) engraved by Joannes l'Huilier; and three beautiful maps of the Mediterranean islands: Crete, Sicily and Malta, each with inset detail maps: "remarkable decorative maps ... extremely attractive ... with a layout that makes the location clearer ... and the maps more appealing [than their contemporaries]" (Werner). A few of the other maps were copied from those of Janssonius or Blaeu, but many appear to have no direct predecessors, so that they make an original contribution to cartography.
De Wit (1629/30-1706) may have been apprenticed to Joan Blaeu in Amsterdam, for whom he drew maps in the 1640s, but he set up on his own there by 1653, publishing a series of sea charts in 1654. From that time to at least 1666 he issued atlases without title-pages or texts, and included some of his colleagues' maps alongside his own. Around 1670, or possibly even earlier, he issued his first terrestrial world atlas to include a title-page and a printed list of (17) maps, known from a unique copy. Blaeu never fully recovered from the fire that destroyed his new printing office in 1672, leaving the field open for younger cartographers like Visscher and De Wit. Around this time De Wit issued a single atlas covering the world and the Low Countries (17 provinces) with a single title-page and contents list, with maps 1-26 for the world and A-Z for the Low Countries. When he issued the present atlas of the world with its own title-page and contents list, the single map of the Low Countries was of course included, giving the present numbering 1-26 and A (in both the contents and on the maps themselves). Several other De Wit terrestrial atlases are known before he was granted a privilege in 1689, but they are clearly later, the earliest described in the literature (Koeman, Wit 3) omitting the 1659 map of Denmark (disrupting the numbering) and including two maps of Hungary, so that number 21 is replaced by 21A and 21B. Another indication that the present edition is earlier is that four of its maps (apparently some of the earliest) are not noted or appear in later states in Koeman's list of De Wit's terrestrial atlas maps (see below), suggesting they may have been replaced by later maps in the atlases he examined.
The make-up of the maritime atlas shows less variation (whether issued separately with its own title-page and contents or with the terrestrial atlas and sharing its title-page and contents) but in practice many copies lack at least one map (especially the world or the north pole). The literature records three early examples issued separately (usually dated ca. 1675, but see below). The only "complete" one has Ram's world map instead of De Wit's, and it is not clear whether any of the three has a printed contents list. The present copy is complete and its map of the north pole is in an earlier state than that in the literature. This map was originally made by Hendrick Hondius ca. 1636 and appears in Janssonius atlases to 1649. De Wit apparently acquired the plate at the 1676 Janssonius auction. In the present atlas it was printed after Hondius's name was removed from the plate, but before De Wit's was added, while it bears De Wit's name in most of his atlases. Another indication of an early date is that 17 of the 27 maps are numbered in their plates, while Koeman notes only 5 numbered plates: numbers were sometimes removed from the copper plates when the order was to be changed or when their issue with the terrestrial atlas gave them higher numbers in the contents lists. Some irregularities in the present numbering suggest there may have been a still earlier version, perhaps without the north pole map, but whether it had a title-page or contents list we do not know. The De Wit atlases are notoriously difficult to date, and at least the present set is printed almost entirely on unwatermarked paper (terrestrial map 6, Spain and Portugal, shows one small mark, perhaps a Z with the form of a 3). If De Wit did indeed acquire the plate for the north pole at the 1676 Janssonius auction and then remove Hondius's name, the maritime atlas must have been issued in or soon after that year. The maps in the terrestrial atlas seem to have reached their present states ca. 1672, but may have been issued with the present title-page and contents list to accompany the new martime atlas. Since the map of the north pole does not bear De Wit's name, however, it is possible he acquired multiple copies of the the printed map to issue in his atlas before he acquired the plate, in which case our atlas could date as early as ca. 1672. We have located only one other atlas that apparently matches ours, at the Osher Map Library, University of Southern Maine, shelfmark S-140 (not in the URSUS on-line catalogue), also with the terrestrial and maritime atlases bound together with separate title-pages and contents lists. We are grateful to George Carhart for information.
The following four terrestrial maps (preceded by their numbers) are not in Koeman's list (III, pp. 212-216):

16. Tabula Tartariæ et majoris partis Rengi Chinæ edita a F. de Wit. Gedruckt t' Amsterdam by Frederick de Wit voor aen inde Calverstraet by den Dam inde Witte Pascaart Lhuilier fecit
[an earlier state of Koeman 119, which is extensively revised].

19. Tvrcicvm Imperivm [without De Wit's name] Joannes Lhuilier sculp. 't Amsterdam.
[an earlier state of Koeman 123].

21. Nova totius Hungariæ, ... Danubii Fluminis Descriptio emendata a F. de Wit. Gedruckt tot Amsterdam by Frederick de Wit inde Kalverstraet by den Dam inde Witte Pascaert.

22. ['Ellas' in Greek type], Seu Græcia Universa. Auctore I. Laurenbergio. F. de Wit Excudit
[an earlier state of Koeman 66, which is extensively revised].

The remaining terrestrial maps (1-15, 17-18, 20, 23-26, A, and the world map in the maritime atlas) have the following numbers respectively in Koeman's list: 3, 11, 7, 19, 52, 72, 101, 57, 81, 63, 104, 47, 117, 98, 106, 80, 97, 120, 39, 114, 88, 14, 65 and 2. We have noted that the north pole map appears here in an early state, but the maps in the maritime atlas otherwise agree with the list Koeman gives under M. Wit 1 and 2, and they appear in the order of M. Wit 2 in both the numbered list and in the atlas itself, but the numbers in the plates are: [1]-[3], 4-5, [6], 7-8, [8.5] (9 in the list; no map is numbered 13 in the plate but the present was surely never intended to appear between plate numbers 12 and 14, the two halves of the Mediterranean: it seems unlikely any map was intended to appear between them), 9-12 (10-13 in the list), 14, [15], 16, [17], 18-19, [20]-[21], 25-21 (22-26 in the list) and [27].

From the collection (from at least 1873) of C. Avis junior in Amsterdam. The endpapers are watermarked: IV = fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield above "4", "WR" and script "AJ" [Abraham Janssen], Heawood 1786 (Holland? ca. 1690). A unique pair of coloured atlases, terrestrial and maritime, among the earliest issued by Frederick de Wit.

In very good condition and with the colouring still bright.- (Occasional marginal water stains, folds and minor tears (some repaired)).

Cf. Cat. Nat. Mar. Mus. 191 (maritime, with Ram's world map instead of De Wit's) & 190 (with 17(?) of these 27 terrestrial maps); Koeman M. Wit 1 (maritime, copy described lacking 3 maps: world, north pole, Russia), Wit 3 (terrestrial, slightly later ed., omitting 1 map and adding 1) & M. Wit 2 (maritime, sharing title-page and contents with terrestrial atlas); Philips & LeGear 485 (maritime, lacking world map); Shirley, British Lib. M.WIT-1a (maritime, without title or contents and lacking 2 maps: world & north pole); cf. Werner, Inde Witte Pascaert, esp. pp. 14-16, 21 and items 1 & 9; not in Nordenskiöld; Sijmons; for the world maps: Shirley 444 & 451.

Related Subjects: 17th Century Amsterdam Atlases Atlases, Celestial Atlases, Sea

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