Het Gooi – Reinier & Josua Ottens, 1726–1738

A CELEBRATED MAP OF THE GOOI

“Nieuwe kaart van Gooilandt” [new map of the Gooi area], copper engraving made by Hendrik Post, published in Amsterdam by Reinier and Josua Ottens, c. 1726–1738. Coloured by a later hand. Size (plate mark): 52 × 81 cm.

This large and richly executed map shows Naarden, Huizen, Blaricum, Laren, Bussum, Hilversum and Eemnes set within a varied landscape of open arable fields, heathland, woods, roads, ponds and low-lying pasture lands. Naarden appears as a compact fortified town with star-shaped defences, whereas ’s-Graveland is carefully delineated as a regular sequence of narrow plots with country houses and gardens. Its orientation is unusual to the modern eye: east-south-east is at the top.

Hendrik Post based his map on the large-scale surveys of Justus van Broekhuysen of 1709 and Maurits Walraven of 1723, but reduced the area to a scale of approximately 1:25,000 to 1:26,000. In order to include the Maatlanden, the pasture lands along the Zuiderzee, he placed them in a separate inset at upper left. The result was not a simple reduction of earlier maps, but a general map combining accurate topography with a distinctly decorative character.

Particularly noteworthy is the attention given to ’s-Graveland. Its elongated reclamation plots are shown with country houses and the names of prominent owners. One of the parcels is prominently labelled “Fiscael”, referring to Hendrik Bicker 1615–1651), to whom the map is dedicated. The title cartouche identifies him as “Schepen” (alderman) of Amsterdam, councillor and advocate-fiscal to the Admiralty, as well as “meestersknaap” of Gooiland: a judicial officer in matters concerning forestry and hunting. His family arms surmount the cartouche, which is further adorned with Diana, goddess of the hunt, putti, hunting dogs and sheep.

In 1725, Bicker had a stone orientation table erected on the Tafelberg near Blaricum, indicating the visible settlements and points of the compass. The circular image at the bottom of the map reproduces this “compas”. At lower left, a table records the areas of thirty-seven named plots of land in Rhineland measure. The map thus also preserves the landscape of the lands of the “erfgooiers“: communal lands whose rights of use were of considerable economic importance to the villages of the Gooi.

The map provides not only a geographical overview, but also a splendid image of the Gooi and its landowners. Until the map of the heathland division of 1843 appeared, it remained the principal topographical representation of the region.

Price: Euro 11.500,-