Utrecht – Joan Blaeu, 1649
€1.650
17TH-CENTURY UTRECHT
“Traiectum Wttrecht,” copper engraving published by Joan Blaeu, ca. 1649 in his famous town book of the Netherlands: “Het Toneel der Steden van de Vereenigde Nederlanden met hare Beschrijvingen” [The Theatre of the Cities of the United Netherlands with their Descriptions]. Coloured by a later hand. Size approx. 38 × 50 cm.
The copperplate from which the print was made must have been engraved between 1642 and 1649, since the Smeetoren, which was converted into an astronomical observatory in 1642, is indicated in the legend (no. 56) as “observatorium.”
The map reflects the situation of 1642–1644, as the Pieterstraat—laid out in 1644—does not yet appear.
The map contains several inaccuracies: the Salvatorkerk, already demolished in 1587, is still depicted; the Catharijne Gate is shown in its pre-1625 form; and the Vaartse Rijn and Oude Rijn are incorrectly oriented.
After the founding of the university in 1636, the city created a sports field outside the city moat for the students, where the then-popular game of jeu de mail could be played (legend no. 53: Palle maille baen). With its six pall-mall players and rows of trees, the map provides a clear impression of this 17th-century recreation ground.
The Amsterdam cartographer and publisher Joan Blaeu sought to fulfill the ambitions of earlier mapmakers Abraham Ortelius and Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg by adding a series of city books to his multi-volume world atlas.
Blaeu’s Toneel der Steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden appeared in a Latin edition in 1649; the Dutch edition was printed in 1652. Some of the maps included in the work had already been published in earlier atlases—21, for instance, in Marcus Boxhorn’s Theatrum Hollandiae of 1632—while others were newly engraved specifically for Blaeu’s town book.
It is known that Blaeu sent letters to city councils requesting that they provide him with a city plan and a written description to include in his work.
Literature: “Kaarten van Utrecht” – Donkersloot de Vrij (1989), no. 14
Prijs Euro 1.650,-
