The Maritime Museum is currently showing an exhibition about a world map from 1648. Guest curator Djoeke van Netten explains what is so special about this map. “He makes the room on his own, with ease.”
The printed world map of the famous cartographer Joan Blaeu was part of the permanent collection of the Maritime Museum for many years. It is a rare copy, because of its enormous size (more than two by three meters), number of printings and the latest information on the map. However, since its reopening in 2011, visitors have had to do without the card. Those who missed the world map can now indulge themselves. Historian Djoeke van Netten (University of Amsterdam) has devoted an entire room to this piece of art and the story behind it.
There is a link with her current investigation into secrecy within Dutch trading companies, including the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie). The maps of the VOC cartographers Blaeu also do not show everything that was known to them. “Making maps is not only about applying the latest information, but also about what the cartographers themselves wanted to emphasize or what the VOC told them not to show. Every line was thought through.”
The VOC gave instructions to their captains, but also to the cartographer about which information should not be passed on or depicted. Many of these instructions have survived and are being researched by Van Netten.
Above all merchant
Van Netten also has a thing for the Blaeu family. In 2012 she obtained her PhD on research into father Willem Jansz Blaeu (1571-1638), printer alias publisher alias map maker alias merchant. And now there is an exhibition about the world map of son Joan (circa 1598-1673), the VOC cartographer. “All seafarers employed by the VOC had to go straight to Blaeu upon arrival to hand in their notes about the voyage. The VOC did not want this important information about routes and the like to fall into the hands of their competitors.”
The Blaeu family was world famous in her time for publishing books, atlases and maps. She climbed the social ladder and son Joan went to law school. This was typically a study for sons from wealthy families to prepare them for administrative positions. “In the company, Joan became primarily a manager. He was less involved in the content of the books produced by the printer than his father. In his day he was seen, even more than Willem, as a merchant. Because although they made and printed the most beautiful maps and atlases, we are dealing with a commercial company here.”
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As a VOC cartographer, the Blaeu's received the most recent information to process in their maps. Although prohibited, Joan in particular sometimes used this information commercially, for his own cards that he sold to third parties. We do not know whether the world map from 1648 was such a commercial map. No sales receipt has been preserved and the client is also unknown. Blaeu in any case dedicated the map to the leader of the Spanish delegation at the peace talks in 1648. This peace (from Münster) marked the end of the Eighty Years' War with Spain.
Blaeu made a few more copies of this world map, including for the English king, the French king and the Japanese emperor. The huge world map was really a showpiece, which also showed the most recent information and borders. The text at the bottom of the map, a whole piece of what you can see geographically, is in both French and Latin on this copy.
Van Netten:“Not only the size and rarity of the world map make it special, but also the statements Blaeu makes in images and text.” For example, the cartographer gives Copernicus' theory that the earth is not the center but revolves around the sun, a central place on the world map. “This was not a widely accepted theory, for example the Catholic Church forbade it. The Earth was the center of the universe according to the Bible. And now the sun is pontifically centered on a map for a Catholic Spaniard. That is not accidental, but we can only guess what Blaeu's intention was with this statement."
Center of the world
Mapmakers claimed territory and legitimized colonization by naming discoveries and drawing new boundaries. Maps were thus a political tool. “Blaeu did this, for example, for the VOC with Australia and New Zealand. In 1644, Abel Tasman brought the cartographer his notes on the newly discovered continent, and then Blaeu was the first to put Australia on the map. He called it Hollandia Nova and he also gave many other places on the continent Dutch names. These names continued to be used well into the nineteenth century, even when the country was already English. And the name New Zealand is still used.”
The world map from 1648 is the first on which these countries can be found. In addition, a globe by Blaeu that is a few years older is also on display in the room. This was his first object to feature Australia. The making process of a globe is also explained. In this way, the curator makes it clear that what we see on a world map is not reality. The earth, like a globe, is round. By showing the earth flat, the proportions are no longer correct.
Also on display is a Chinese map from 1674, made by Flemish missionary Ferdinand Verbiest for the Chinese emperor. “Verbiest put China in the center of the map, where Blaeu did with Europe. The world maps that we still use, with Europe at the center, are therefore culturally determined. The earth is round and there is simply no central point or center.”