Pascaerte vande Zuyd-Zee tussche California, en Ilhas de Ladrones

Amsterdam : Pieter Goos, op’t Waater inde Vergulde Zeespiegel, 1666. 430 x 538 mm (image), 465 x 555 mm (sheet), had coloured, decorative cartouche, a fine example.

A fine example of Pieter Goos’ sea chart of the Pacific Ocean. Extending from Van Diemen’s Land to Japan, and from New Zealand to California, it significantly notes discoveries in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Goos’s chart is among the earliest maps to focus on the Dutch discoveries in New Zealand and eastern Australia. Abel Tasman’s explorations in Australia and New Zealand of 1642 are mentioned and dated, along with his naming of van Diemen’s Land, after the Dutch East India Company’s governor-general, who had commissioned his voyage. Goos locates the discoveries of Tasman in the Gulf of Carpentaria (modern day Queensland) in 1644, and marks New Guinea as a separate landmass to the coast of Carpentaria, making it one of the earliest sea charts to recognise the passage between New Guinea and the Australian continent. Numerous Pacific islands are located. Across the Pacific Ocean, California is delineated along with the semi-mythical Straits of Anian, which it was believed gave access to the North-West Passage.

Pieter Goos’ sea atlas De Zee-Atlas ofte water-wereld was among the most important and commercially successful Sea Atlases of the 17th Century. Goos’ father, Abraham Goos, was one of the most sought after Dutch engravers of his time (for example, he engraved a number of the maps for John Speed’s Atlas). Pieter Goos continued this tradition of fine, elegant engraving, with his Zee Atlas of 1666. The map includes three sailing ships in the Pacific waters, two compass roses, numerous rhumb lines and the Tropics of Cancer, Capricorn and the Equator running downwards along the chart.

Goos’s intention to make a work of both beauty and utility is plainly set forth in this title page, specifically stateing that the work will be beneficial to both “Heeren en Kooplieden” (gentlemen and merchants) and to “Schippers en Stuurlieden” (pilots and seamen). As stated by Koeman, “The . . . beautiful sea-atlas reflects a high professional standard. The many editons published over twenty-five years are an indicaiton of the customer’s appreciation.”

Collections:

National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales.

The National Library of Australia also holds examples of the 1663 and 1672 editions.