Mare Rubrum (the Red Sea)

Key Properties

Edition: First edition, first state, without the graticule of longitude and latitude

Language: Dutch (the Beschryvinghe vande Roode Zee, p. 108)

Format: Copperplate engraving, c. 9 x 12 cm, on a leaf from the oblong octavo atlas (p. 109), with the letterpress description on p. 108

Colouring: Uncoloured, as issued

Collation & Technical Description

Two leaves from the Caert-Thresoor: the Dutch Beschryvinghe vande Roode Zee on p. 108, and the map MARE RUBRUM on p. 109, with the letterpress header De Roode Zee and, beginning on its verso (p. 110), the description of Madagascar. The map shows the whole sea from Sues (Suez) and Toro at the head to the strait, with Aden and Zeyla beyond it, the compass directions named in the borders (Septentrio at the foot, so with the north at the lower left). The emphasis is entirely on the sea and the shore: the shoals, reefs and channels of the fairway are marked throughout, the island of Camaran lies mid-sea, and the coasts carry a wealth of Portuguese names. On the Arabian side are Gidda al Ziden et Iuda (Jeddah), Mecha, Zibit and Mocha, with the note Agra de Medina inhabet ubi Mahumetis sepulchrum, the place where Muhammad is buried; on the African side Mazuam (Massawa), Suaquem (Suakin) and the Costa de Suaquem, among many more places than appear on, for example, Ortelius's Turcicum Imperium of 1570.

The Dutch text on p. 108 describes the Red Sea between Asia and Africa, the Sinus Arabicus or Mare Rubrum, the redness of its sandy bottom, the crossing of the children of Israel, the testimony of Lodovicus Vartomannus (Varthema), the island of Chameran with its salt, the pilgrims of Mecca, Toro and Suez with the galleys the Turks keep there, and the coasts down to Abex and Melinde.

Condition

A strong, dark impression on toned paper, the letterpress showing through as usual. Wide margins; some fraying and small defects at the blank extremities, far from the printed border. Original page numbers preserved.

References & Bibliography

Tibbetts, Arabia in Early Maps (1978), map 56. Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, II, p. 254, Lan 1. Schilder, Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica, VII, 16.1. Burger, Het Caert-Thresoor (1930), pp. 65 to 80. King, Miniature Antique Maps (1996).

Description

The Red Sea shown for the first time as a stand-alone printed map, from the first edition of Barent Langenes's Caert-Thresoor, the first Dutch pocket atlas, published at Middelburg in 1598 and sold by Cornelis Claesz in Amsterdam, here with the original Dutch description of the Red Sea.

The map descends directly from the best cartography of its day. The first map devoted to Arabia and the Red Sea is the Sexta Asiae tabula in the Rome Ptolemy of 1478; the first modern depiction is in Waldseemüller's Carta Marina of 1516, known in a single copy; the first printed modern map is Gastaldi's Arabia Felix Nova Tabula of 1548, which Tibbetts calls the first printed map to deal specifically with Arabia, copied and enlarged by Ruscelli in 1561, the year in which Gastaldi also produced his larger Seconda parte dell'Asia. The next advance came from Portuguese maritime sources, built on the exploration of the Asian waters from Vasco da Gama onwards: Petrus Plancius obtained a fine set of Portuguese manuscript maps by Bartolomeu Lasso, which served as the basis for the map of the Indian Ocean published in Van Linschoten's Itinerario of 1596. The Langenes Red Sea is directly derived from that Linschoten map and quite distinct from the Porro map of 1596: the bays are shown in distinct detail and the places are clearly indicated, the result of direct observation.

Historical Significance

The Red Sea was the artery of the spice trade in Ottoman hands and the sea the Portuguese, and after them the Dutch, sought to outflank by the Cape route; a separate, navigationally minded map of it, with the fairway, shoals and harbours picked out, answered a real curiosity of the Amsterdam merchant public of 1598. The Caert-Thresoor, the first atlas in the Dutch language, engraved by Jodocus Hondius and Petrus Kaerius, exploited the strength of the small atlas by depicting not regions but seas, straits and islands in full, and its Mare Rubrum stands at the head of the printed cartography of the Red Sea. The first edition is extremely rare: only about thirteen copies are known to survive, and separate leaves from it seldom appear on the market.

Provenance

Available on request.