Terra del Fuego, Strait of Magellan, Strait of Le Maire – Willem + Joan Blaeu, 1643-1650

CHART OF TIERRA DEL FUEGO, THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN AND THE STRAIT OF LE MAIRE

“Tabula Magellanica“, copperplate engraving made by Willem Blaeu and published by his son Joan Blaeu, 1643–1650. Hand-coloured at the time. Dimensions: 41.2 x 53.5 cm.

In the early seventeenth century, the southernmost tip of South America occupied a singular place in the European geographical imagination. The Strait of Magellan, and after 1616 Cape Horn, were the only known sea routes between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. The region fired the geographical imagination: the hypothetical southern continent (Terra Australis) was believed to begin here, and each new expedition — by Ferdinand Magellan, Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten — yielded new geographical data. For a cartographer like Blaeu, recording that knowledge was a matter of both scientific ambition and commercial reputation: whoever possessed the most accurate and up-to-date map possessed, in a sense, the world.

Notably, Tierra del Fuego (then known as Magellanica) is depicted here as a single vast landmass, part of Terra Australis. It would not be until later in the seventeenth century that it was established to be an archipelago. The inclusion of the Strait of Le Maire and Cape Horn, however, marks a recent and decisive correction to older geographical assumptions.

Blaeu dedicated the map to Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), poet, diplomat and secretary to Stadholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange. This was no mere formality, but should be understood within the network of patronage and intellectual exchange — travel accounts, logbooks and the like — in which Willem Blaeu operated. Huygens was one of the most influential figures at the court of The Hague. A dedication to Huygens amounted in effect to an indirect presentation to the House of Orange, positioning Blaeu’s work within the highest political and intellectual circles of the Dutch Republic.

Price: Euro 875,-