Brussels International
Map Collectors' Circle
by Prof Dr Günter Schilder. Alphen aan den Rijn: Uitgeverij Canaletto, 2003. Text volume 556 pages, facsimile folder with 63 mostly folding map facsimiles (five in colour), ISBN 909 6469 765 5, EUR 225.00
Only three years after the publication of Vol. VI on Dutch folio-sized single sheet maps with decorative borders, Prof Schilder now presents the biggest text volume yet published. This time the subject is Dutch cartography in the time of publisher Cornelis Claesz, focusing on his enormous cartographic output from 1580 to 1610, of which mention has already been made in previous issues of the Newsletter. Pilot guides such as the Spiegel der Zeevaerdt and Thresoor der Zeevaert are fully described, as are the numerous single-sheet maps and wall maps published by Claesz, and the books on navigation and cosmography, Dutch polar voyages, Linschoten's Itinerario, plus the folio maps he prepared for Guiccardini's Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, to name only these.
This brief note cannot do justice to a reference work of this order, and we hope to publish a complete review in due course. An absolutely amazing and impressive work of reference, richly illustrated as I have seen none other.
by Wulf Bodenstein