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VERY RARE MAP OF HOLLAND AND UTRECHT
ONLY ONE COPY KNOWN IN THE NETHERLANDS
[MAP - NETHERLANDS]. COLOM, Jacob Aertsz and Frederick de WIT. Comitatus Hollandiae et Dominii Ultraiectini Tabula.
Amsterdam, F. de Wit, 1681. Large folio. Large engraved map in 40 sheets of 40.5 x 29.2 cm each, together 162 x 290 cm. Red half leather binding.
| Orders and Information | € 23750 |
Rare map of Holland and Utrecht in forty sheets. The map was drawn by Jacob A. Colom (1600-1673), printer, bookseller and mapmaker, and first published in 1639. Colom issued a second edition in 1647. There also exists a sheet with the date "1661" on the title-cartouche, which may have belonged to an otherwise unknown third edition by Colom. After Colom's death, Frederik de Wit acquired the copperplates and decided to publish a new edition of this large map. Although several detailed and accurate regional maps were published in the course of the seventeenth century, there was apparently still a need for large maps which gave surveys of entire provinces. De Wit made several changes. The map is dedicated to Stadtholder William III instead of to Frederik Hendrik, the clothes of the man and the woman in the title-cartouche have been modernized, and the geographical contents have been updated. There are many minor changes, and sheets 34 and 35, the forest near Amersfoort, and sheet 16, have been redrawn. The logo of Colom, a fiery column, can still be found above the title-cartouche. De Wit added his address underneath, "F. de Witt excudit Amstelodami in Platea Vitulina vulgo dicta de Calverstraet sub Signo de Witte Paskaerdt."
There are two states known of the 1681 edition. The first state contains the fiery column over the title-cartouche, and the cities Heusden and Naarden are shown in an unexpanded state. On the map of the second state, the fiery column has been removed, Heusden has an additional neighbourhood, and the fortifications of Naarden have been completely modernized. Work on these fortifications was completed in 1685. This means that, although the map is still dated "1681," it may have been completed after 1685. On the other hand, it is also possible that De Wit anticipated these alterations. Sijmons considers the first state of 1681 the third edition of the Colom map, and the second state of 1681 the fourth edition. Our copy is the first state of 1681. Sijmans lists three known copies, the University Library Leiden, the Royal Library in Stockholm, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Ex-libris of "Ed. de Ridder" on inside front cover; some lower corners of first sheets torn off, not affecting illustration; sheets 13 and 15, minor tear along folding line, 15: repaired. Some offsetting.
Good copy of this rare map.
