This superb sea chart of the south coast of Cornwall and the Scilly Islands is from the earliest Dutch editions published between 1583 and 1585. This is an example of the second state issued immediately upon publication at the end of 1583. The spelling of Eddystone was altered from ‘De nuen steen’ to ‘De nijen steen’. This rare chart is bears a Dutch title. A Latin one was added in 1585 for that edition. It depicts the coast of England from the region of St. Ives (not added until a later state) around to Plymouth in Cornwall. It is also the first printed map of the ‘Sorlinges’ or Scilly Islands illustrated as one island surrounded by a ring of rocky islets. A very ornate map with two decorative cartouche, the royal coat of arms, sea monsters, and 6 ships some of which are firing canon.

Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer (c.1553-1606) who was one of many Dutchmen who sailed the trading waters from Holland as far afield as Spain and the Baltic Sea. The expanding trading activity of the Netherlands created a demand for more accurate charts of the coastlines. Waghenaer retired from the sea in 1579 at which point he was already engaged in cartography. In 1577 he produced a plan of his hometown of Enkuizen, West Frisia. He began production of a series of charts using the knowledge he had gained from sea-fairing. Part one of the ‘Spieghel der Zeevaerdt’ was printed at the recently founded Plantijn Press in Leiden and published to critical acclaim in December 1583. The task of engraving the plates was given to one of the finest engravers of the time, Joannes van Doetecum (d.1605). The work covered the coastline of western Europe from Amsterdam to Cadiz and the south and southeast coasts of England, in 22 charts accompanied by a general chart of western Europe. It was a landmark in western European navigation offering the first modern published sea charts. Tony Campbell states ‘When Waghenaer published his ‘Spieghel der Zeevaerdt’ in 1583-84, he was breaking new ground in several ways. Nobody before had combined in one volume the charts, coastal profiles and sailing directions that any captain not navigating entirely from memory, or luck, would have required’. A second part published in 1585 included the waters of the North Sea and Baltic Sea.

Provenance: Clive A. Burden Ltd. 1996; private English collection. Campbell (1981); Isles of Scilly Museum (1974) no. 2; Koeman (1967-70) IV p. 474 no. 20a; Nalis (1998) ‘New Hollstein’ 813; Palmer (1963) no. 1; Quixley (1966) no. 2; Quixley (2018) no. 2; Schilder (2003) MCN VII pp. 47-75; Schilder & van Egmond (2007) 1392-96.