Northeast/ New York City.  JANSSON, J. [Amsterdam, 1651]  Belgii Novi, Angliae Novae, Et Partis Virginiae Novissima Delineatio.  17 ¼ x 20 ¼ inches.  Superb original color; a few vertical creases else excellent with wide margins.                                                      

The rare of first state in an exquisite example of what has become known as the “Prototype Map,” as it provided the template for the mapping of the Northeast and upper Mid-Atlantic region for well into the 18th century.  It was the first in the Jansson-Visscher series of maps that saw numerous editions over a period of nearly a century.  It is also the earliest collectible map to show the correct shapes of Manhattan and Long Island.  Further, it was the first to include the Swedish settlements along the Delaware River.  The names of virtually all Indian tribes that were encountered by Europeans at the time can be found on the map. 

The map was most likely based on a large manuscript map that was used as part of a protest by New Netherlands colonists against the policies of the Dutch West India Company, the organization that sponsored the colonization of New York.  The author of the manuscript is believed to have been Adrien van der Donck, a lawyer who was an early resident of New Amsterdam and who led the protest of the colonists.  See Russell Shorto’s superb The Island at the Center of the World for an in depth portrait of van der Donck.

As Campbell observes, "the prototype map represents Dutch elegance at its best."  In addition to its decorative qualities, the map is visually suggestive of the moment in history when European colonies were only tenuously established in the Northeast with the frontier still hovering nearby.  As Campbell eloquently puts it:  "Indians surrounded them (the European settlements) and from the numerous native names on the map one can almost feel the pressure keeping the settlers back." 

Burden 305, State 1; Stokes, I.N.P.  The Iconography of Manhattan, I, pp. 143-146; Campbell, T. in Tooley, R.V.  The Mapping of America, pp. 279, 283; Van der Krogt 9310:1B.1:405.

Price: $16,500.00