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fact, the vignettes so dominate the map that the coastline with itsrivers and place-names seems of secondary importance.

The illustrations on early maps, and especially those purport-ing to show native peoples and their milieu, are often severalsteps from reality, being idealised from crude sketches or merelyadapted from previous engravings. Those on the Marcgraf mapare altogether of a different class. They were drawn by the Dutchartist Frans Post (1612-80) of Haarlem, one of the most talentedartists employed in Brazil by Johan Maurits and a man with analmost fanatical preoccupation with detail, as can be seen in themany subsequent paintings that he built up from sketchesbrought back to Europe in 1644. Furthermore, the vignettes donot show famous episodes, heroic battles, native 'types' lookinglike Europeans in feathers and beads, or mythical animals: theyillustrate everyday colonial life. Outside the sugar mill, negroesplay music and dance, while the mill owner in a broad-brimmedhat leans over his balcony, apparently conversing with anotheron horseback. Every operational detail of the sugar and maniocmills is carefully spelled out, so that such mills could probably bereconstructed from these drawings. Of exceptional interest arethe scenes of the Tapuya Indians, dancing, drinking, hunting`ostriches' (presumably rheas), and in one vignette clubbing,dismembering and roasting their enemies. Did Frans Postwitness such cannibalism? Only twice are Tapuyas shown in hispaintings, so that these vignettes may well be a most precioussupplement to Post's documentation of Brazil. Taken as a whole,the vignettes probably offer a more realistic view of life in anexotic land than those of any other map of the period.

Yet another aspect of great interest in this Brazil map is itsprinting history. It first appeared as four plates in the Rerum peroctennium in Brasilia . . . historia, the panegyric published in1647 (the same year as the Blaeu map) by Caspar van Baerle orBarlaeus on the eight years that Johan Maurits was Governor-General of Dutch Brazil. These maps showed successively thecoasts of the captaincies of Sergipe, southern Pernambuco,

northern Pernambuco with Itamaraca, and Paraiba with RioGrande. The last two maps included the vignettes of the sugarmill and the Tupinamba village, but the upper four vignettes (a,b, c, d. See illustration) were not used (except for a part of theseine-netting scene on the second map). The remaining illustra-tions in Barlaeus were engraved from ink and wash drawings byFrans Post, which are now in a bound volume in the Departmentof Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (No 197* a2; 31drawings and one unused). Unfortunately, the original drawingsfor the four map vignettes are not known. Possibly theyremained with Blaeu, together with the original draft for themap, and could thus have been lost in the fire at the Blaeu worksin 1672. What may be part of an early draft of the map, orperhaps a copy, is in the Algemeen Rijksarchief in The Hague. Itdoes not conform to the Barlaeus divisions, overlapping parts ofboth the first and second maps, but bears the same explanationand attribution to Marcgraf (here Latinized as Marggrafius, notMarggraphius).

The four Barlaeus maps were of different shapes and did notinclude the four vignettes and title (upper right part of the map),nor the explanatory text and decoration (lower left part of themap). In making a rectangular wall map of these, Blaeu fittedthem together, leaving edges where they could be glued andadding four irregular sheets for the vignettes top right and an L-shaped sheet bottom left, thus making nine awkward sheets plustwo narrow strips to fill in gaps. Below this, in Latin, Dutch andFrench, he added a long text on Brazil based on Barlaeus. Themap itself was 163.7 cm wide and 102.0 cm deep (or 148.8 cmdeep including the text). In the Klenck version the boundariesare hand-coloured in green, pink and yellow.

Unexpectedly, the Klenck Atlas is not unique. In theDeutsche Staatsbibliothek in East Berlin is an almost identicalatlas presented to Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector, by noneother than Johan Maurits in 1664 (they were cousins and theElector had earlier taken Johan Maurits into his service). A third

Below:The main title of Allard's edition of 1659, unlike Blaeu's, includes captions (left to right beginning at the top): Tamandua guaer ofte mieren eeterZyn Tonge is langh 7Vierendel van een ellen dick gelyck a/s een bas snaer(Tamandua guaer [misreading for guacu] or anteater his tongue is long as four and a part ells [ell=69 cm] thick as abass string); Ai ofte Luyaert gaende s dags omterent 20 Passen weeghs a/s hy zy best doet (ai or sloth going per day about twenty paces when he does his best);Brasiliense muffs (Brazilian mouse); Brasiliaenen Vtfelucht over de Victori van haer batalien (Brazilian joy over victory of their battle); de Bradery (the roasting); de Strut'sJacht (the ostrich hunt). (By courtesy of Leiden University Library).

Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen was Governor-General of theDutch West India Company holdings in Brazil from 1637 to 1644. Heemployed Georg Marcgraf as one of a team recording the new land.This poi trait of Maurits in oils is by Jan de Baen.

The MarcgrafMap of Brazilby Peter J. Whitehead

4

Joan Blaeu produced his own (wall-map) edition of the Marcgraf map later in 1647. Theillustration has been marked to show how the nine irregular sheets forming the map were pastedtogether. Allard in 1659 and de Jonghe in 1664 rationalised the sheets into nine more or lessequal rectangles. (By courtesy of the British Library)

Dr Whitehead is a Principal Scientific Officer in the ZoologyDepartment of the British Museum (Natural History), specialisingin the taxonomy of herring-like fishes. For many years he has hada deep interest in the Dutch period in Brazil and has published anumber of articles on the subject. His book on Dutch Brazil, withfellow ichthyologist Martin Boeseman of Leiden, publishedrecently, explores the pictorial record of this episode in Dutchcolonial history. Here he examines the famous wall-map of Brazilin the Klenck atlas.

ONE OF THE great treasures of the map collection in theBritish Library is the enormous Klenck Atlas, 1.7 metres highand opening to a spread of almost 2 metres (5'/zft x 6'/2ft), solarge in fact that it stands in a special glass case and must bewheeled out into the Students Room of the Map Library. It waspresented to Charles II on his accession in 1660 by a group ofAmsterdam merchants headed by Johannes Klenck (misspeltKlencke), Professor of Philosophy at the University. The KlenckAtlas is also noteworthy because it includes one of only fourknown copies of the famous wall map of Brazil published by JoanBlaeu in 1647. Although parts of this map had appeared in bookform in the same year, and the complete map was later twicecopied, it is the original Blaeu version that is the mostcelebrated. Not only is it one of the most elegant Dutch maps ofthat period, but it remained for over a century the best guide tonorth-eastern Brazil.

This map can be dubbed the `Marcgraf map' after its author,Georg Marcgraf (1610-43), a young German polymath fromLiebstadt near Dresden, who was serving as cartographer,astronomer, zoologist and botanist to Count Johan Maurits ofNassau-Siegen, Governor-General from 1637 to 1644 of theDutch West India Company holdings in Brazil. Marcgraf'sauthorship seems to have gone unrecorded in the West IndiaCompany documents, apart from occasional statements that hewas occupied in cartographic work, but it is attested in a captionto the map which reads: Quam proprijs observationibus acdimensionibus, diturnau peregrinationi ase habitis, fundamentali-tur superstruabat & delineabat Georgius Marggraphius Germa-nus, Anno Christi 1643. Marcgraf was one of a team of scientists,artists, craftsmen and others brought out to Brazil by JohanMaurits to explore and record every detail of this new land. Hehad been a wandering scholar, visiting ten different universitiesin about as many years and studying medicine, mathematics,

astronomy and botany, but never apparently with a formaltraining in cartography. It is curious, therefore, that Marcgrafwas chosen for such a large project when the well-knowncartographer Cornelis Golijath, one of the best of Dutchmapmakers, was employed in 1638-41 to make a general map ofthe Dutch territories in Brazil. The Golijath map was never infact published and is known only through two manuscript copiesmade by Johannes Vingboons (son of Philips Vingboons, authorof the 1637 Brasilysche Paskaert). One copy is in the H. G. BornAtlas in the Instituto Archeologico Pernambucano in Recife,while the other is in volume 2 of the Vingboons Atlas in theBiblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome. In general, theMarcgraf map is superior in cartographic indications, whereasthe Golijath/Vingboons map is richer in place names and otherdetails. This seems to imply that the two did not pool theirinformation. Certainly, Golijath left Brazil in 1641 to attend thecoronation of Joao IV of Portugal (which would have givenMarcgraf the opportunity to replace him), but his 1648 map ofthe Recife area has sufficient up-to-date information that onecan suspect that Golijath returned. Nevertheless, the Blaeu mapbears Marcgraf's name and makes no mention of Golijath. Itwould be interesting to discover the true relationship betweenthe two men's work, but in any event it is clear that Marcgraf wasno simple plagiarizer.

The Marcgraf map has much more of interest, however,besides its cartographic information. This was the great period ofDutch wall-maps, elegant pieces to be hung in bourgeois homes,as seen in the interiors by Vermeer and others. Such mapsrequired vignettes, decorative borders, informative texts, in factall those elements of story-telling that could transform specialistcartography into popular geography. The Marcgraf map is noexception. Every spare part is crowded with aspects of Brazilianlife. They show small scenes characteristic of the four groups ofinhabitants — the Europeans as colonists and landowners, thenegroes as slaves in the sugar industry, the `savage' Tapuyas(correctly Tarairius) with a reputation for eating their enemies,and the more `civilised' Tupinambas settled in aldeias or villagesunder Dutch supervision. Combined with this ethnographicprogramme are scenes of economic activity (a sugar mill, amanioc plantation and mill, fishing with a seine net), typicalBrazilian animals (anteater, sloth, boa constrictor, etc.), and in afestoon under the main title BRASILIA qua parte paret BELGISsome examples of Indian weapons and musical instruments. In

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The vignettes include aseine-netting scene withmanioc and sugarplantations below. Allardgives the following captions(left to right, top to bottom):Schilt wacht omt'Waerschouwen wannerd'Visschers met Vis aencoomen (Watch to warnwhen the fishermen comewith the fish); FaringePlanttagie wiens Wortelinplaetse Van broot werdtgenutticht (Maniocplantation whose root waseaten in place of bread);Faringe werdt alhiergerast[geraspt] en gedroocht (Flourwas here ground and dried);Thugs van d'Heer van eenSukckerMoolen (House ofthe master of a sugar mill).(By courtesy of LeidenUniversity Library).

The third edition of the Marcgraf map was that published byClement de Jonghe of Amsterdam in 1664. At least three copiesexist: in the British Library, in the Maritiem Museum 'PrinsHendrik' in Rotterdam, and in the Ministerio das RelacoesExteriores (Ministry of Foreign Relations) in Rio de Janeiro. DeJonghe followed Allard in using nine more or less equal sheets,thus again elongating the left vignette, but there are somepuzzling differences. Although he copied Allard (or Barlaeus) inomitting the procession and also the palms at the top of Paraibawith Rio Grande, he took only some of the Allard captions (withsome spelling changes), leaving out most of those describing thescenes. Once again, the copying of topographical detail andplace-names is very exact, although the engraver was sometimesrather careless, as when he dated the fourth sea battle as AnMDXL and entirely forgot to inscribe Rio Grande on the bannerbelow the arms for that captaincy.

In the history of cartography there are a number of truly greatmaps, great because of their subject or their unique survival ortheir association with some famous figure in a particular phase ofthe art. The Marcgraf map of Brazil is perhaps in a more modestcategory. Yet its elegance, its balance between cartographic andsocio-ethnographic information, its power to evoke lost scenes ofcolonial life, its considerable accuracy and the recognition thatwas accorded to it at the time (by inclusion in the Klenck andother prestigious atlases) give it a rather special place in theevolution of maps.

It was Allard and de Jonghe, furthermore, who recognised aneed for further editions of the complete wall-map with itsvignettes and it is much to their credit that they took such painsto reproduce every cartographic and pictorial detail withexactness. In this way, at least nine examples have come down tous as a record of the skills of Georg Marcgraf, Frans Post, someunrecorded engravers and above all the marvellous energy andenthusiasm of a colonial governor, Johan Maurits, who con-ceived and largely financed the project.

A more detailed analysis of the map, together with fullbibliographic references, is given by:

P. J. P. Whitehead & M. Boeseman, 1987. A portrait ofDutch seventeenth century Brazil. animals, plants and people

by the artists of Johan Maurits of Nassau. Amsterdam:Koninklijkc Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen andNorth-Holland Publishing Company.

References:1. Wall-maps in Dutch paintings are sometimes of such accuracy that they can help

to elucidate the history of the map itself (see for example James A. Welu, 1978.'The map in Vermeer's art of painting', Imago Mundi, 30. pp 9-30. TheMarcgraf map is not known from any painting, but the 1630 'news map' ofRecife by Claes Jansz. Visscher appears in a Dutch interior by Jacob Duck.

2. The Berlin atlas has been rebound with wooden boards and rather ugly baroquemetal decoration, but the Rostock atlas has an original binding almost identicalto that of the Klenck, being a series of diamond shapes (occupied by roses,fleurs-de-lys, thistles or harps in the Klenck version). Their parentage is thesame, the Klenck being inscribed on the spine Kees Dierkz. et filius D.K.compegerunt anno 1660 and the Rostock Kors Dierksen et filius D. Korsencompegerunt anno 1664. Since the Klenck and Berlin atlases were gifts to veryprominent men, one would expect the same of the Rostock atlas, but itsprovenance is unknown.

3. In some, perhaps many. copies of Barlaeus one or more second state maps havebeen substituted for the originals. Thus the British Library copy (formerlyowned by Sir Joseph Banks) has no negro on the watch tower (map 2), norprocession with horseman and palanquin (map 3), whereas in the coloured copyof Barlaeus in the Royal Geographical Society Map Room these elements arepresent (second state). In the copy of Barlaeus used by S. P. 1'H. Naber for hisDutch translation (1923) map 4 was in the second state (additional palms, textsfor sea battles Ii—IV).

4. A coloured copy of the Dutch edition (1665) was examined in the RoyalGeographical Society Map Room, entitled Derde deel van 't achste stuck deraerdrycks-beschrvving, welck vervat America. The text and maps occupysignatures S2—S7, the four maps being out of their Barlaeus order map (1 — S3;map 3 — S4; map 2— S5; map 4 — S6), as correctly indicated by Koeman (Atlantesneerlandici, 1:244). 1 am indebted to Francis Herbert of the Royal GeographicalSociety for drawing my attention to this and to their coloured Barlaeus and formuch helpful criticism of my text.

20

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Above:The Marcgraf Blaeu map of Brazil was first published as four plates in 1647 in Barlaeus's Rerum per octennium in Brasilia . . . historia. The detail shown here is from themap of northern Pernambuco and Itamaraca. (By courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society, London)

such huge atlas is in the University Library at Rostock in EastGermany.2

Both the Berlin and the Rostock atlases include the Marcgrafmap (sheets 35 and 32 respectively). Yet another copy of thisBlaeu map, and apparently the only known example that stillexists as a traditional wall-map, was in the possession of theUtrecht dealer R. C. Bracken in 1983. It differs from the otherthree in that the Latin text is mounted vertically down the rightside, the Dutch replaces the Latin at the bottom, while theFrench runs down the left side; also, it is uncoloured.

The Barlacus maps can be considered as a first state.Presumably Blaeu, who was the publisher of the Barlaeus book,had seen the possibility of making a complete map andcommissioned the vignettes from Frans Post. Why he shouldhave allowed the second Barlaeus map to be of a different width(southern Pernambuco almost 10 cm narrower than the rest) ismysterious, although the heights are much the same. Theoverlap areas were already marked by lines on the Barlaeussheets, showing that a pasted-up complete version was planned.Curiously, however, Blaeu then decided to make several smallalterations. For example, he placed a negro on the watch toweroverlooking the seine netting scene, added a procession with apalanquin, woman with basket and man on horseback below thesugar mill, placed two extra palms at the top of Paraiba with RioGrande, and supplied captions to the sea battles numbered H-I V. With the addition of the vignettes, this can be considered asthe second state of the map.3

The Blaeu edition can be instantly recognised by the largepalm on the right of the sugar mill buildings and a smaller oneabove the Tupinamba village buildings (both on the Paraiba withRio Grande map). Both the later Allard and the de Jongheeditions have a honey bee and a grasshopper below the swags offlowers in the top right vignette, as well as at least some captions

to the animals and scenes. The Allard alone has a small palmadded to the left of the manioc scene, just below the fishermen,while the de Jonghe edition is immediately recognisable byprovision of the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense around the armsof Prince Frederik Hendrik, the Stadholder, who had beennominated knight of the Order of the Garter in 1627 (his are therighthand arms hung from the festoon below the main title).

Blaeu re-issued the four maps in editions of his Atlas Major(Latin, 1662; Dutch, 1665), using the second state, but otherwisein the form used in the Barlaeus book.4

The subsequent printing history of the Marcgraf map posestantalising questions regarding copyright, pirating and theeconomics of producing other editions of maps. Twelve yearsafter the Blaeu edition of 1647, Huych Allard (or Huijch Allart)of Amsterdam published a new edition of the map. Carefulcomparison of the details shows that although the topographicallines and the place names are almost identical, they were in factre-engraved. Allard sensibly rationalised the awkward Blaeuarrangement by making nine more or less equal sheets ofapproximately 38.5 by 52.7 cm. He extended the bottom to givemore room for the sea battles, which meant elongating thevignette on the left side, and he provided Dutch captions for theanimals and the scenes. It seems possible that he re-engraved thetwo right maps (northern Pernambuco and Paraiba with RioGrande) from original Barlaeus examples, since the processionin the first and the two palms in the second are missing. Anincomplete copy of the Allard map (top right sheet missing) is inthe Bodel Nijenhuis collection, p. 219, No. 60, in the Universi-teitsbibliotheek in Leiden, while a complete copy was offered forsale by Sotheby's recently (October 23, 1986, item 141,illustrated on p. 77 of catalogue); it was suggested in thecatalogue that the imprint date of 1659 had been altered from1657.

19