Leiden – Joan Blaeu, 1649
17TH CENTURY MAP OF LEIDEN
“LUGDUNUM BATAVORUM vernacule Leyden.” Copper engraving published in Amsterdam in 1649 by Joan Blaeu as part of his town book “Toneel der Steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden” [Theatre of towns of the United Netherlands]. Coloured by a later hand. Verso: Latin text. Size: 42 x 53.7 cm.
Leiden, the fourth-largest city in Holland, was a significant town in the 17th century, primarily due to the university founded there in 1575. Leiden was given this university as gratitude for its brave resistance against the Spaniards in the Eighty Years’ War. The town was built around the Burcht, an artificial cone-shaped hill on which a circular tuffstone refuge castle was constructed in the 12th century. This castle stands where two branches of the Rhine converge, precisely in the middle of the town. The settlement developed as a dike village on the southern Rhine dike, the Breestraat, and became the center of trade and shipping in the rapidly developing agricultural surroundings. Remarkably, Leiden lacks large squares or marketplaces.
At the time this map was made, Leiden was at the peak of its prosperity. Joan Blaeu writes (in Latin on the verso side of the map): the town is strong and well-built, equipped with sturdy gates, solid ramparts, and broad moats, making it well-defensible. Outside the walls, there is a wide moat beautifully planted with elms, providing a pleasant place for relaxation. Blaeu further notes that Leiden was next to Amsterdam, due to its recent expansions, the largest city in this province [Holland]. It had 89 streets and alleys and 102 stone bridges. (Be sure to watch the interesting video featuring a 3D version of the map.)
The Amsterdam-based cartographer and publisher Joan Blaeu aimed to achieve the objectives of earlier publishers Abraham Ortelius and Georg Braun & Franz Hogenberg simultaneously by including a series of town books in his extensive world atlas.
Blaeu’s Toneel der Steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden was published in Latin in 1649; the Dutch edition was printed in 1652.
Some of the maps included in this work had been published in earlier atlases—21, for example, in Marcus van Boxhorn‘s Theatrum Hollandiae from 1632. Other maps were entirely newly created for Blaeu’s town book. It is known that Blaeu wrote letters to city councils requesting maps and descriptions for inclusion in his work.
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