Delft – Gregorio Leti, 1690

“Delfi Batavorum vernacule Delft“, [Delft of the Batavians commonly called Delft]. Copper engraving published in 1690 by Gregorio Leti as part of his Teatro Belgico. Coloured by a later hand. Size (print): 37.7 × 48.5 cm.

The city of Delft lies in a peat reclamation landscape. On this plan, for which Gregorio Leti had acquired the copperplate from Frederick de Wit, we see the characteristic pattern of parallel drainage ditches, both inside and outside the city. Almost all of these run at right angles to the main watercourse—today known as the Vliet – Oude Delft – Schie, but at the time of Delft’s foundation called the “Delf” [dug watercourse], from which the city takes its name. The settlement arose on a sandy creek ridge, presumably near a comital court located roughly where the town hall now stands. In 1246 it was granted city rights, becoming the third city of Holland.

At the centre of the town lies the market square, flanked on the east by the Nieuwe Kerk and on the west by the Town Hall. The Oude Kerk stands slightly apart, between the two main canals. The former St. Agatha’s convent—today known as the Prinsenhof, the place where William the Silent was assassinated—is marked on the map as number 36 (between “Oude Kerck” and “School Poort”).

The plan is a revised version of Joan Blaeu’s map of 1649. In 1654 the gunpowder magazine in the northeastern quarter of the town exploded. The blast site was never rebuilt and became the horse market. Leti’s map records this new situation. In the south (lower right), where the Oude and Nieuwe Delft canals join, new construction began in 1692 on the Armamentarium, the arsenal of the States of Holland. This building is not yet shown, but the empty building plot is clearly visible (on Blaeu’s plan houses still stood here). Today the site houses the Army Museum.

In the upper corners appear the coats of arms of Holland and Delft (three vertical bands of silver–black–silver).

Gregorio Leti (1630–1701) was a historian and satirist, born in Milan and later emigrated to England. He wrote a history of England for Charles II, but fled to Amsterdam in 1685 after offending his patron. In Holland he worked on the Teatro Belgico, a book on the history of the Seven Provinces.

Leti made few friends with his publications. All of his works were placed on the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, and even the Rotterdamsche Hermes thundered in 1721:
“A few weeks ago Hermes attended a sale of those mute chatterers, when he had to hear that a pimply, shabby little bookworm, Gregorio Leti, the Italian windbag, was compared to Heer Hooft, the Tacitus of the Batavians.”

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