Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe – Gerard de Jode, 1578

”Frisiae Antiquissimae trans Rhenu provinc: et adiacentum regionum. Nova et Exacta Descriptio.” [The most ancient Friesland beyond the Rhine and the adjacent regions. A new and accurate description.] Copper engraving made by Gerard de Jode in 1568. Here in a second state, issued in the atlas “Speculum Orbis Terrarum” of 1578. Original hand colouring. Size: 39 × 51 cm.

This map provides a detailed view of the northern Netherlands. The central areas depicted are Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe, while along the edges smaller parts of neighbouring regions are included.

In the Wadden Sea, labelled on the map as “Twadt,” lie the islands of Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog, as well as the smaller German Wadden Islands. In the southwest appears the Zuiderzee, cutting deeply into the land and linking the Frisian coast with Holland. The map clearly illustrates how strongly the region in the sixteenth century was shaped by water: sea inlets, rivers and peatlands structure the landscape.

The map was published in Gerard de Jode’s atlas “Speculum Orbis Terrarum” [Mirror of the lands of the world], an ambitious cartographic project intended to compete with the atlas issued from 1570 by Abraham Ortelius, the “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum“. Although De Jode’s atlas was of high cartographic quality, it was less successful because Ortelius had already secured a strong position in the market. As a result, maps from the “Speculum Orbis Terrarum” are quite rare today.

The map presents a characteristic example of late Renaissance cartography, in which geographical knowledge, historical scholarship (printed on the verso) and artistic presentation come together.

On the reverse appears an interesting descriptive text:

The people are warlike, physically strong and courageous in spirit; they possess a great love of freedom, are little inclined to hospitality, impatient of foreigners and devoted to chastity. They are chiefly engaged in cattle breeding: they maintain innumerable herds and possess cattle among the finest and largest in all Europe, so that they are driven from here to almost the whole of Europe.

This region is divided into East Frisia and West Frisia. The former is not shown on this map; it also includes the people of the Chauci, who have abandoned their former name and adopted that of the Frisians.

Here, however, we shall treat West Frisia [not the region in North Holland now called West-Friesland, but the present-day province of Friesland], the true and ancient Friesland. It is divided into four districts, of which the most prominent is Groningen; the others are the county of Oostergo, the county of Westergo, and the county of Septem-saltuum, commonly called Zevenwolden. Each of these districts has its own towns and villages.

The capital of the region is Groningen, which—so it is said—was named after the [mythical] Trojan Grunnius, regarded as its founder. This region produced for us that incomparable ornament of the arts and letters, the humanist Rodolphus Agricola (1443–1485).

Leeuwarden is a wealthy city and the chief town of Oostergo, Westergo and Zevenwolden. Nearby lies the village of Swichum, the birthplace of Viglius (1507–1577), a man of exceptional learning and president of the Privy Council in Brussels.

The town of Dokkum produced the renowned physician and mathematician Gemma Frisius (1508–1555). Thus this province never ceases to produce the most learned men of the world.

The air is generally healthy, except insofar as it is affected by vapours from marshes; yet even this is usually purified by the action of the winds. The land is flat and extremely suitable for pasture. The region is so low, level and deep—especially where it lies nearer the ocean—that from the beginning of autumn until well into the spring it is scarcely possible to travel otherwise than by boat.

The land is so exposed to the fury of the sea that it is often endangered when a north-west wind blows. Grain grows only moderately, owing to the pale and poor soil. Although the region possesses forests—namely those called Zevenwolden—they are nevertheless insufficient to supply firewood. Nature has therefore provided another resource by producing a rich soil called peat, of which the inhabitants possess such abundance that they are able even to supply their neighbours with it.

Price: Euro 1.450,-