Beschreibung:
This book fills a void, existing currently in the knowledge of early Dutch Maritime Cartography. Before Amsterdam developed into Europe?s most important commercial hub in the seventeenth century, demanding and controlling manufacture of maps and sea-charts, a major School of Cartography already flourished in the so-called 'Kop van Noord-Holland', the region just north of Amsterdam. This School specialised in the production of small-scale charts of larger areas, like European coastlines, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Its representatives used to call themselves 'çaert-schrijvers' or 'map-scribes' when clarifying their profession. The cities of Enkhuizen and Edam were important trading ports and as such provided an ideal environment for developing into centres of cartography, serving sea-borne navigation. 0Apart from the well-known printed pilot guides by Lucas Jansz. Waghenaer, the output of these 'caert-schrijvers' consists mainly of manuscript charts on vellum. Copies, although few, are nowadays to be found all over the world. Charts were actually used on board for their application in navigation; another category, however, may also be distinguished. These were to serve in offices of rich ship owners and merchants as wall-decoration and source of information. They feature a decorative lay-out and are magnificently coloured. In view of the miniature paintings they sometimes contain, they surely rate among the most beautiful sea-charts ever produced by Dutch Cartography in the Golden Age