Lot 12: Hessel Gerritsz (1581-1632).

Pascaert Vande Caribes Eylanden: curiooslyck betrocken, met Octroy vande Ho. Mo. Heeren de Staten Generael der vereenighde Nederlanden. [Amsterdam, 1631]. Engraved chart on vellum, hand-coloured in outline 737 x 520mm. Two compass roses, rhumb lines, scale-bars in Dutch, Spanish and English measures. (Small stain lower left corner, some slight surface soiling). ONE OF TWO KNOWN EXAMPLES OF THIS IMPORTANT DUTCH CHART OF THE CARIBBEAN ON VELLUM. Gerritsz, Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher, was the official cartographer for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Amsterdam from 1617, and cartographer to the Dutch West India Company (WIC) from 1621. Using information gleaned from pilots' reports and annotated maps, Gerritsz would supply the companies with accurate, up-to-date manuscript charts. In 1628-1629 Gerritsz had joined the Zutphen, in the fleet which sailed to the Caribbean under the command of Adriaen Jansz Pater, and with the aid of manuscript maps, deroteros and sketches he was then able to produce this highly accurate chart of the islands. It became a model for many other maps of the Caribbean including Blaeu's Insulae Americanae, first published in the Novus atlas of 1634. Gerritsz also did maps of various other parts of the Americas, but the need for accurate West Indian charts was essential for the Dutch sugar trade that was just beginning. Gerritsz started his cover as an engraver working for Blaeu, and once on his own got the job of offical cartographer of the VOC, through the support of Petrus Plancius, over Blaeu. In this role he would work on numerous manuscripts. It seems most likely that this vellum chart would have been drawn up specifically as a gift to a senior offical of the WIC rather than for general circulation to the pilots of the company. The other known copy of this chart is held by the Bibliotheque Nationale (Bnf DCP Ge C 9070) and was probably retained by the French, after the VOC archives had been moved to Paris in the early 19th century.