Bachelor’s Delight
VII
V
VI
IV
III
II I
X
X
VIII
IX
XII
XI
Introduction
At the centre of our universe lies the earth. The
Ancients called the known world the oikoumene, the ‘inhabited
world’, encompassing Europe, Africa and Asia. They knew the
world to extend beyond this, having calculated its size and
having deduced the existence of the great southern continent.
In light of the discoveries made since, however, we may
cautiously conclude that, for their great wisdom, there were
many lands the Ancients neither knew nor imagined.
The kings of Castile and Portugal sent out the
renowned navigators Christopher Columbus and Amerigo
Vespucci, who, to their eternal fame, discovered an unknown
part of the earth – now called America, or the New World, and
divided into a northern and southern part. The unsailed coasts
of Africa and the East Indies have similarly been navigated, by
the famous Vasco da Gama and other Portuguese explorers.
The enormous riches, profitable trade and commerce and
great prowess these discoveries brought to these kingdoms,
and the innumerable heathens brought into the light of the
Christian religion, are widely known.
Following our revolt against the king of Spain and
Portugal, the overseas exploits of these kingdoms, both
with respect to navigation and commerce and to voyages
of exploration, served us as an example in building our own
empire. Our extensive possessions in the Indies and the New
World are sufficiently known to merit no further attention here.
In this elucidation of our new and most accurate map of the
world, we will instead focus on those regions that we are
currently endeavouring to explore and chart.
The Arctic and its contiguous seas
It is a matter of some irony that the Arctic region, so
very near the civilized world, should still be such a mystery
to us. It is into this area, however, that Dutch and English
explorers have been venturing, so that our knowledge is
rapidly expanding. The map we present here contains the
sum of what we know of these regions.
Sailing to the northwest from the coast of Scotland,
one first finds two large islands; Iceland, the larger of the two,
falls under the kingdom of Denmark. The abundance of fish
used to draw merchants from our own regions there, until the
Danish king forbid anyone but his own subjects to conduct
trade and commerce with the island. Iceland is home to
a large, ever-active volcano called Hekla. It has often been
reported that this fire-mountain is the entrance to purgatory,
and that the souls of those who have been condemned to
dwell there can be seen haunting the land at every eruption.
We will leave it to the reader to form his own opinion about
these rumours.
hunted and killed a white bear here. Even further north one
reaches Spitsbergen, to our knowledge the northernmost
island on which people have ever set foot. It was named by
the renowned expedition mentioned earlier, for its steep and
sharp mountains.
Further to the east is Nova Zembla (which allegedly
means ‘New Land’ in the Russian language), the island where
said expedition foundered, and where its members lost their
ship and had to winter in the arctic night. This island therefore
constitutes the furthest point visited by our nation’s navigators,
and our trustworthy cartographic knowledge extends up to
here. For knowledge of what lies further north and east, we
have to make use of earlier accounts. The most important
source of our knowledge of these regions is the travel account
of a Franciscan monk, who once travelled widely through
the north. His original account has been lost, however, and
its content was only handed down to us through the work of
cartographers. They describe the great arctic continent as
being divided into four roughly equal parts by great sea lanes,
flowing towards the pole.
The climate, once one comes north of the great
arctic winds, becomes milder, and the region directly north
of Norway and Moscovia is densely populated by a people of
pygmies called Skraelingers. Further to the west, across the
sea lane, the climate becomes even better and more fertile.
The Ancients also knew of this northern continent.
Pliny, for example, writes about the mild and fertile lands north
of the Arctic winds and its inhabitants. Among them we find
the Hyperboreans, who know no disease or old age, and only
die of their free will once they are satisfied with their lives. This
ancient knowledge handed down to us seems consistent
with the Franciscan monk’s account. We therefore choose to
include his rendering of the polar region in our map, rather
than adopting one of the new and radical theories about there
being nothing but open sea at the north pole during summer,
and nothing but ice during winter. These new ideas seem
hardly consistent with the various accounts, recent or old, that
we have of these regions.
Our Franciscan monk describes the North Pole itself
as a huge black magnetic rock looming up out of the inland
sea that surrounds it, dangerous to ships carrying anything
made of iron. Although this seems credible, as the magnetic
compass needle points north, he might have been in error
about its location, as we have more recently discovered that
the compass needle points slightly to the east of the North
Pole.
I Iceland. Abraham Ortelius, Antwerp c. 1590.
Slightly to Iceland’s south-west lies the slightly smaller
island called Frisland, named so because of the continual
frost unto which it is subject. Its soil, like Iceland’s, is so cold
and barren that it bears neither corn nor fruit. The inhabitants
live mostly on fish, and sell it to the many traders frequenting
its harbours. Slightly to its east is a lesser island called Icaria,
after Icarus, the son of Daedalus, a King of Scotland who once
ruled these islands.
II The North Atlantic. Zeno map, reproduction of 1793, orig. Venice c. 1558.
Further to the northeast is the great land of Greenland.
Formally, the Danish crown claims this region, although there
seems to be little contact and the area has few inhabitants.
It is as yet unknown whether Greenland is an island or is a
peninsula of the great northern continent; we have here
followed those that believe Greenland to be separated from
said landmass. Greenland is accompanied by a great icecovered island to its west, called Grocland.
IV The Arctic. Gerhardus Mercator, published by Jodocus Hondius,
Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio. Amsterdam 1606.
Asia
The fabulous riches of Asia are widely known. Our
explorers were driven to find the route to the vast wealth of
China and the fine spices in the Moluccas, and obtain vast
profits by setting up trade with these regions., Their efforts
have been invaluable for extending our knowledge of the
globe. It does not need to be recalled here that the Americas
were discovered in search of a western route to Asia, and
that Columbus believed he had landed there, rather than in a
hitherto unknown land.
The Asian region nearest to us is that of Asia Minor,
now largely ruled by the Turk. It has been known to us since
time immemorial, as the lands of the Old and the New
Testament are to be found here, and the Ancients have also
written about these lands extensively. India, already known
to us from the days of Alexander the Great’s conquests, has
similarly been travelled and charted by Portuguese, Dutch
and other Europeans. Further east, our navigation of the
islands of the East Indies has given us great knowledge of
their geography. China, by contrast, for all our attempts to set
up trade and contacts there, is still largely unknown to us. The
famous account of Marco Polo, and the more recent reports of
Portuguese and Spanish missionaries traveling through these
regions, inform us of the wealth and vastness of the Empire,
and the many wonders that it harbours. Among these are the
wall that extends for six hundred leagues on its northern border
to keep out the horse nomads of Tartary, and the capital called
Heavenly City, vaster than any European city, so that it takes
a traveller on horseback more than a day to travel from its
outer edged to the huge palace in the centre. Many more such
wondrous stories are told of this great empire - had they not
been witnessed first-hand by reliable witnesses, one could
scarcely believe them. Our own countrymen, however, have
yet to set eyes on these wonders, as China remains closed
to our nation, so that we only know its shores and some of its
port cities first-hand. Near China’s coast is the island of Korea,
almost as northerly as our own region (though on the other
side of the globe), so that snow falls there in winter.
Further out to sea, we find the islands of Japan,
equally wondrous but better known to us. These islands have
a climate comparable to that of Korea, and like China they are
ruled by an emperor. Our countrymen first encountered these
island when the ship Liefde, part of a fleet that attempted but
failed to circumnavigate the world, was stranded here. Since
then, Dutch ships have been fortunate enough to visit these
islands and conduct trade there.
III Greenland. Detail from Mercator, Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad
Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata. Antwerp 1569.
Moving north and east, one comes across Jan
Mayen Island, called after its Dutch discoverer Jan May. The
island, almost perpetually hidden by fog, is home to a large
volcano. Further to the northeast, off the northern shores of
Norway, is a small island called Bear Island, named so by
the famous explorers led by Barentsz and Heemskerck, who
V Japan and Korea. Abraham Ortelius, Antwerp 1603.
Le Christianisme, Tome 1,
Fénelon, Au Bureau de la
Bibliothèque Ecclésiastique, Paris,
1837
Causes Célèbres et interessantes,
avec Les Jugemens qui les ont
décidèes, tome XXII, M. Richer
Chez Michel Rhey, Amsterdam,
1788
Le Leman ou Voyage Pittoresque,
Historique et Littéraire a Genève et
dans le Canton du Vaud (Suisse).
Tome II, M. Bally de Lalonde, Chez
G.-A Dentu, iImprimeur-liberaire,
1842
Grimoires de Paracelse, René
Schwaelbe, H. Daragon, Paris,
1911
Oevres Poétiques de J.Racine,
tome II, J.Racine, Classiques
Francois, Dirigees par L.S. Auger,
de l’Académie Françoise, 1824
Memoires de Maximilien de
Bethune, Duc de Sully, Tome
septieme, Mis en ordre, avec des
Remarques, par M. De L’Ecluse,
Mémoires et Voyages du Prince
Puckler Muskau, Tome V,
Prince Puckler Muskau (vertaald
door J. Cohen), H. Fournier Je
Libraire, Paris, 1833
Chants du Soldat, Paul Déroulède,
Calmann-Lévy, 1872
Oevres Poétiques de J.Racine,
Tome I, J.Racine, Classiques
Francois, Dirigees par L.S. Auger,
de l’Académie Françoise, 1824
Curiosites Infernales, P. L. Jacob
(bibliophile), Garnier Frères,
libraires-éditeurs, Paris
Don Quichotte de la Manche,
Tome I, Miguel de Cervantès
Saavedra, J.-J. Dubochet et Cie
Editeurs, Paris
History of England. Vol III from the
Accession of James the Second,
Lord Macaulay, Longmans Green
and Co., 1869
Lettres et Pensées du Maréchal
Prince de Ligne, publiées par
Mad. La Baronne de Staël
Holstein, Chez J. J. Paschoud,
Libraire, Paris, 1809
Hommes et Faits, Gyprien de
Lespan, R. Pornin et Cie, ImpLibraires-Éditeurs, 1846
Histoire de la Formation
Territoriale des États de L’Europe
Centrale, Tome I, Auguste Himly,
Libraire Hachette et Cie, 1876
Les Grands Écrivains Francais,
Sainte-Beuve, Librairie Garnier
Frères, Paris, 1932
Splendeur et Misères de M. De
Chateaubriand, Maurice Levaillant,
Société d’éditions Littéraires et
artistiques, librairie Ollendorff,
Paris, 1922
The Poetical Works of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press, 1913
Choix de Poésies, Paul Verlaine,
Bibliothèque-Charpentier, Eugène
Fasquelle, éditeur, 1898
To the north of China is the region we know as Tartary.
These mysterious northern regions are inhabited by fierce and
warlike horse nomads, although the region supposedly also
harbours great kingdoms and cities. Marco Polo was the last
to describe these regions in detail, and both he and others
have related many wondrous things to be found there, such
as the evil spirits in the Lop Desert, just beyond the Great
Chinese Wall. These spirits endeavour to make travellers lose
their way. Tartary is also home to the Barometz plant, from
which sheep are said to grow.
Of particular interest to the navigators of our great
nation is the land of Anian, located on the far north-eastern
shore of Tartary - or perhaps, as some think, on the far northwestern side of America. It is believed that a sea-lane called
the Anian Strait divides the great landmasses of America and
Asia here, so that ships could pass from the icy seas that
separate Asia from the Arctic Continent, into the warmer seas
that allow passage to China and the East Indies. The arduous
nature of this route is well-known from earlier attempts to find
it, which have invariably failed to reach Asia. The end of the
journey through the icy seas, with its unpredictable weather,
prodigious amounts of drift ice and bitter cold, would bring
ships close to where we have determined the magnetic pole
of the world to be. This might make passing through the Anian
Strait an especially dangerous part of the voyage, as the
anchors, cannon, pans, nails and everything else made out of
iron on a ship that would pass there, would inevitably be pulled
towards the pole. Should the ship be unable to steer clear of
the pole, this would certainly bring it to harm. However, for all
the dangers and objections to a north-eastern route to Asia,
many of our learned countrymen are still of the opinion that
this route, once we find it, will present a shorter and healthier
passage to Asia than the one via the Cape of Good Hope.
America
Strait Anian brings us to American continent. In the
interest of fairness, it should here be noted that no known
explorer has ever seen Strait Anian with his own eyes – or it
should have been Juan de Fuca, discussed below. Despite
various voyages of exploration both along the American
west coast and the arctic seas north of Asia, the possibility
that America is connected to Asia, and might form a
single continent with it, cannot be entirely discounted. The
inhabitants of North America appear to be Tartars, as noted
by the English navigator Frobisher and confirmed by many
that came after, which would certainly seem to argue in favour
of this view. Considering the account of the great Marco Polo
and other reports of the land of Anian, and the contiguous
sea passage, however, it seems all but certain that America is
indeed a separate and New World of which the Ancients were
completely unaware.
A matter of even greater doubt is whether there
should be any sea-lane dividing the American landmass over
its entire length, or a passage between the many islands that
Dutch and English explorers found when venturing into the
great inland seas and bays on the far north-eastern side of
the American coast. If there is such a passage, it has not been
found, although, considering that there is a similar passage
at the southern end of the Americas, it could reasonably be
expected to exist.
One scarcely known attempt to locate it, however,
deserves our special attention here: the one by the abovementioned Juan de Fuca who was sent out by the Viceroy of
Mexico with a small caravel and a pinnace, armed with only
mariners, to look for said Straits. He followed his course in
that voyage west and north-west, all along the coast of New
Spain, California, and the territories we call North America,
until he came to the latitude of forty seven degrees. Here he
found a great headland, with an exceedingly high pinnacle or
spired rock, like a pillar, on it. The land here trended north and
northeast, with a broad inlet of sea. He entered this inlet, and
sailed for more than twenty days, finding an inland sea that
became ever broader, so much that he could no longer see
the coast in any direction. In it, he discovered various islands.
Coming upon the far shore, he went on land in diverse places,
and saw people, clad in beasts skins. The land appeared to
him to be very fruitful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other
things. We have included the inland sea he discovered, which
could conceivably be part of a northwest passage through
America, in our map, and believe to be the first cartographers
to do so.
among the first areas in the New World to be settled by the
Spaniards, and are sufficiently well-known to merit no further
attention here. Even further south, we find the great forests
around the mighty Amazon River, named after the female
warriors that the Spaniards encountered in these regions.
These forests are full of tall trees which never lose their leaves
and give off the sweetest odours, so that some have likened
these lands to Paradise. Here, we find the lands of Guyana,
and in them the great Lake Parime, with the Golden City of
El Dorado on its western shores. Many reliable eyewitnesses
have reported that the inhabitants of this city are so rich in gold,
that on the many drunken orgies held by Guyana’s emperor
and nobles, the participants are first anointed with a white
balsam all over, to be then covered in gold dust, blown onto
them through tubes by their servants, until they shine from
head to toe. Thus covered in gold, they sit drinking for days on
end, and engage in various kinds of unnatural behaviour that
decency will not allow to be described here.
L’odyssée d’un Transport Torpillé,
Y., Libraire Payot & Cie, Paris,
1917
L’Énéide, traduite par Jacques
Delille Tome 3, Vergilius, Chez
Giguet et Michaud, Imp-Libraires,
1804
Monsieur, Madame et Bébé,
Gustav Droz, Société d’éditions
Littéraires et artistiques, librairie
Paul Ollendorff, Paris, 1903
Le Prince de Talleyrand et La
Maison d’Orleans, La Comtesse
de Mirabeau, Calmann-Lévy,
Ancienne maison Michel Levy
Frères, paris, 1890
Promenades dans la Passé,
Gaspard Vallette, Chez A. Jullien,
éditeur, Genève, 1906
Aus meinem Leben,
Generalfeldmarschall von
Hindenburg, Verlag von S. Hirzel
in Leipzig, 1920
Les Grands Écrivains Francais,
Sainte-Beuve, Librairie Garnier
Frères, Paris, 1932
Mémoires du General Bon de
Marbot I, soixant-septieme
edition, Paris, 891
Splendeur et Misères de M. De
Chateaubriand, Maurice Levaillant,
Société d’éditions Littéraires et
artistiques, librairie Ollendorff,
Paris, 1922
Chefs-d’oeuvre dramatiques de
Voltaire, tome II, Voltaire, A Paris,
Chez Verdière, 1824
Choix de Poésies, Paul Verlaine,
Bibliothèque-Charpentier, Eugène
Fasquelle, éditeur, 1898
VII Maritime map, coast of California, Pieter Goos, 1676
Even further south, we find the great Spanish territories
of New Spain and Mexico, once home to the great Aztec
Empire, and, off the coast, the Caribbean islands. These were
Staircase, cut pile carpet runner,
400 x 102.5 cm, Northwest
Persia, Bidjar, approximately
1900, purchased in 2001 at
Kibenian in Amsterdam
The Bird Room, woven pile carpet,
590 x 325 cm, Northwest Persia,
Heriz, 19th century, donation by
Maurits van Loon
Staircase, cut pile carpet runner, 400 x 102.5 cm, Northwest Persia,
Bidjar, approximately 1900, purchased in 2001 at Kibenian in Amsterdam
The Bird Room, woven pile carpet,
590 x 325 cm, Northwest Persia,
Heriz, 19th century, donation by
Maurits van Loon
The Bird Room, woven pile carpet,
590 x 325 cm, Northwest Persia,
Heriz, 19th century, donation by
Maurits van Loon
Depiction of the Obeliscus olim
Veranus, modo Barberinus,
in Rome, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum
Amsterdam
Depiction of the Sallustius
Obeliscus; Sallustius Obeliscus
modo dictus Ludovisius, juxta
Archetypum Serenissimo Austriae
Archiduci Leopoldo Ignatio,
nunc Augustissimo Imperatori
| inscriptum ab Athanasio
Kirchero. S.I. ; Amstelaedami,
Ex Typographejo Ioannis Blaeu,
in Rome, 1663, drawing by
Athanasius Kircher, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the obelisk
Obeliscus, qui olim Ramesseus;
Obeliscus, qui olim Ramesseus,
in Rome, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco
Flaminio on the Piazza del
Popolo in Rome, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obeliscus
Pamphilius, as it was placed
on the Piazza Navona in Rome
1651, commissioned by Paus
Innocentius X, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco Flaminio
on the Piazza del Popolo,
Obeliscus Flaminius; cujus
notas huiusque in Rome, 1663,
copyright Scheepvaartsmuseum
Amsterdam
Architectonic drawing of the
Obeliscus Mediceus; Obeliscus
Mediceus, olim ab Imp. Claudio
in Circo Florae, deinde Magno
Hetruriae Duce in Hortis Pincianis
erectus [architectural drawing]
| Amstelaedami, Ioannes Blaeu
Excudebat, in Rome, 1663,
copyright Scheepvaartsmuseum
Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obeliscus
Monticoelius, in Rome, 1663,
copyright Scheepvaartsmuseum
Architectonic drawing of
the Obeliscus Mahutaeus;
Obeliscus Mahutaeus | juxta
archetypum Athanasii Kircheri
S.I. ; Amstelaedami, Ioannes
Blaeu Excudebat, in Rome 1663,
copyright Scheepvaartsmuseum
Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco
Lateranense on the Piazza
di San Giovanni in Letareano
in Rome, 1663, drawing by
Athanasio Kirchero, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the obelisk on the
Piazza dell’Esquilino in Rome
also known as the obelisk
Exquilinus, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco Vaticona
on St. Peters Square in Rome
(circa 1586), with the St. Peter in
the background , 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obeliscus
Pamphilius, as it was placed
on the Piazza Navona in Rome
1651, commissioned by Paus
Innocentius X, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obeliscus
Pamphilius, as it was placed
on the Piazza Navona in Rome
1651, commissioned by Paus
Innocentius X, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco Vaticano
on its original location in Rome,
together with models of eight
methods of obelisk transportation
(circa 1586), 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the Obelisco Vaticona
on St. Peters Square in Rome
(circa 1586), accompanied by two
allegorical figures, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the placement
of Obelisco Vaticona on St.
Peters Square in Rome 1586,
accompanied by two allegorical
figures, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Cross section of the machine that
was used to place the Obelisco
Vaticona on the St. Peters Square
in 1586, in Rome, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
Depiction of the placement of
Obelisco Vaticona on St. Peters
Square in Rome 1586, 1663,
copyright Scheepvaartsmuseum
Amsterdam
Cross section of the machine that
was used to place the Obelisco
Vaticona on the St. Peters Square
in 1586, in Rome, 1663, copyright
Scheepvaartsmuseum Amsterdam
The Dining Room, woven pile
carpet, 402 cm x 326 cm
Northwest Persia, Heriz
20th century, purchased in 1972 at
closing down sale at Firma Dik in
Amsterdam
X The southern continent as depicted on the world map in Abraham Ortelius,
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Antwerp, 1570.
VIII Guyana, with Lake Parime and El Dorado. Jodocus Hondius, Nieuwe
caerte van het wonderbaer ende goudrijcke landt Guiana. Amsterdam c.
1599. Collection Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Going further south, passing the sugar plantations
and forests of Brazil on the eastern shore, and in the west, the
high and steep mountains of the Andes, where the Spaniards
not only found the Inca Empire but also the rich silver mines
that give their name to the lands called Argentina, we arrive
in the southernmost regions of the Americas. This vast and
inhospitable land is named Patagonia, after the Patagons, a
race of giants that inhabits these lands, as reported by many
of the navigators who have passed these shores to sail into
the Great South Seas through the Magellan Straits. They are
12 feet tall, strong enough to pull a middle-sized tree from
the ground, yet they do not have the skills to make clothes
to cover themselves in these ice-covered and wind-battered
lands, some of them merely wearing an animal skin around
their shoulders but being otherwise well-nigh naked. Said
explorers have invariably been struck by their brutish and
uncivilized nature.
Beyond these inhospitable and icy lands, the
Americas give way to the sea. A tortuous sea-lane, cold,
windy and difficult to navigate, separates the land from the
land of Fire to the south. It is called the Magellan Strait, after
the Spanish explorer who discovered and navigated it on his
voyage around the world.
Many islands are to be found in these waters, so
many as to often confuse earlier cartographers. No story can
better illustrate this than that of the The Painter’s Wife Island
which was located in these Straits. The English explorer Sir
Walter Raleigh was informed of this island by Don Pedro
de Sarmiento, a Spanish gentleman, employed by his King
in planting some colonies in the Straits of Magellan. Taken
prisoner by Sir Walter in his going home, he was asked by him
about some islands which the maps presented in these straits,
and might have been of great use to him in his undertaking.
To which the Spaniard merrily replied, that it was to be called
the Painter’s Wife’s Island, saying, that whilst the painter drew
that map, his wife sitting by, desired him to put in one country
for her, that she in her imagination might have an island of
her own. His meaning was that there was no such island,
and some countries too upon the continents in our common
maps, which are not really to be found on the strictest search.
These words might inspire some humility in the cartographer,
although we are certain that in our current map, we have taken
away many of the mistakes made by our predecessors and
present you the most accurate of world maps.
VI The western inland sea, North America. Detail from Jean Janvier, L’Amerique
Septentrionale. Paris 1782.
Curiosites Infernales, P. L. Jacob
(bibliophile), Garnier Frères,
libraires-éditeurs, Paris
The Blue Drawing Room, cut pile
carpet, 730 x 362 cm, Saroek
Noord-Oost Iran, province of
Markazi, approximately 1930
purchased in 2014, with help of
the heirs Egidius, at N.Vrouyr
Tapetijn in Antwerp
The Bird Room, woven pile carpet, 590 x 325 cm, Northwest Persia,
Heriz, 19th century, donation by Maurits van Loon
Cosmopolis, Paul Bourget,
Alphonse Lemerre, Éditeur, 1893
Although America is generally believed to have been
discovered by Christopher Columbus, it must here be noted
that there are various reports of earlier European visits and
settlements at the far northeastern shore. For example, the
Venetian traveler Antonio Zeno, who had come to live on
the island of Frisland mentioned earlier, tells of the land of
Estotiland, on the east coast of North America, where a rich
and skilled European population lived in stone cities under the
leadership of a king. Zeno himself set out to find this land, and,
although he did not succeed, he did land on the coast, where
the king of Frisland then founded a settlement. Slightly further
south is the land of Norumbega, where a Norse population
inhabited a stone city of the same name, having named the
region after their homeland across the ocean.
Going south from there, we come into more familiar
territory – the New Netherlands where our own countrymen
have settled, the English colony of Virginia, named after the
English Virgin Queen, and the Spanish lands of Florida.
On the west coast of North America, we find the great island of
California which, although as yet unsettled, has been explored
on several occasions. This land is said to be rich in oysters of
a truly gigantic size, producing pearls growing up to the size
of a six pound cannonball.
although there is reason to expect that there will be many
good and fertile lands to be found there. After all, the extent
of this continent includes both the cold, hot and temperate
zones, so that there must be many inhabited areas with a mild
and fertile climate. Considering the rich silver and gold mines
and other treasures found in Africa and America in the same
latitudes, it is to be expected that this continent also houses
such natural riches. For all of these reasons, its exploration is
extremely desirable.
IX Magellan Strait. Jodocus Hondius, Amsterdam 1606.
The Southern Continent, or the land of the Antipodes
Magellan called the lands he saw to his south the Land of Fire,
for the smoke and fire he saw there from his ships. It was long
considered part of the landmass of the Southern Continent,
although English and Dutch navigators did sail south beyond
the entrance to the Magellan Strait, along the coast, and did
find open sea there. The navigators Schouten and Le Maire
even claimed to have sailed into the Pacific via that route,
so that the Land of Fire would not be part of the Southern
Continent but, rather, an island between said continent and
America. Their account, however, was found rather incredible
upon their arrival in Batavia. More expeditions will be needed
to give the final verdict on this matter.
The Southern Continent, although already known to
the Ancients, is the least explored of all, and only some small
parts of its coast have been charted. Going east from the
Magellan Strait, the coast of the Southern Continent would
appear to run due east before going turning to the north, as a
foreland of the continent has been discovered to the southwest
of the Cape of Good Hope. Further east the coast once again
runs straight east. The Portuguese have charted this coast,
and described it as incredibly rich in the most incredible
species of parrots. Dyewood is also reported to grow here,
for which reason this land is also to be found under the name
of Brazil on some maps. From here the coastline runs north
and east, eventually reaching up to just below the islands of
the East Indies. This part of the Southern Continent, already
documented in the travel account of the great Marco Polo,
is seen by our nation’s East Indiamen with great regularity.
Some of them, driven by necessity or curiosity, have ventured
to land there, discovering that the land is indeed inhabited –
although the Antipodes in these regions, like those opposite
South America, have so far turned out to be savages of the
worst kind. Slightly to the east of these East Indian islands
is a great island inhabited by similar savages, which lies just
north of the Southern Continent’s coast, which is called New
Guinea for the great similarity of its inhabitants to those of the
coasts of Africa.
Thus far, no Christian king, prince or republic has
seriously undertaken to chart this great unknown part of
the globe, possibly as large as the Old and the New World,
Africa
Across a broad sea from the northern coast of the
Southern Continent, we find the Cape of Good Hope, where
Africa gives way to the open ocean. It is here that our ships
circumnavigate the continent on their way to the riches of Asia,
as, for all the explorations of alternatives, this is still the most
current route. Although the African coasts have been explored
and some commerce and trade is being conducted there, its
interior still largely unknown to us, what little we know coming
from the books of the renowned Leo Africanus, who travelled
widely through the continent.
In Africa one finds the most extraordinary creatures,
such as elephants, dragons, lions, unicorns, buffaloes,
camelopards, panthers, goats, apes, meerkats, baboons and
many more. This is said to be a result of the lack of water, so
that all these types of animals gather at waterholes to drink,
and animals of different kinds also mate there, bringing forth
young of a most bizarre nature.
The south of the continent is home to the Monomotapa
Empire, bordered on the north by the regions of Mozambique,
Gazabela, Angola and Congo. The latter region is named after
the great Congo River flowing through it, alternately known as
the Zaire River. It originates in a great lake called Lake Zaire,
where mermaids and tritons are rumoured to live. North of this
lake, gold is found in great amounts. Lake Zaire is allegedly
also the source of the greatest of African rivers, the Nile, of
which the waters flow across almost the entire length of the
African continent, across the great deserts, to eventually reach
Egypt and flow out into the Mediterranean Sea.
The Dining Room, woven pile carpet, 402 cm x 326 cm, Northwest
Persia, Heriz, 20th century, purchased in 1972 at closing down sale at
Firma Dik in Amsterdam
The Red Drawing Room,
woven pile carpet, 421 x 347
cm, Northwest Persia, 19th
century, purchased in 1970 at
Tapijtenkabinet Van Wardenburg
Upstairs Hallway, woven pile
carpet runner, 449.7 x 97 cm
Northwest Persia, 19th century
donation by Maurits van Loon
The Garden Room, woven pile
carpet, 400,5 x 298 cm, Anatolië
approximately 1900, donation by
Maurits van Loon
Upstairs Hallway, woven pile
carpet runner, 449.7 x 97 cm
Northwest Persia, 19th century
donation by Maurits van Loon
XI Ethiopia / central Africa. Joan Blaeu. Amsterdam 1650.
Further up the west coast we find the great kingdoms
of Benin and Guinea, although the coasts of these empires are
better-known by the names given by European traders after
the commerce they conduct there: the Ivory Coast, the Gold
Coast, the Pepper Coast and the Slave Coast. To the north
flows the mighty Niger River, which in the middle of the desert
dives underground and flows there for 60 leagues before
emerging and flowing out into a large lake.
Further to the south and east, on the other side of the
Nile, is the great Christian empire of Ethiopia or, as it is also
known, Abyssinia. In biblical times, the Queen of Sheba reigned
here. Later, it was ruled by Prester John. This kingdom, or
empire as some would have it, is still ruled by his descendants,
and is surely one of the greatest in the world. Like the pope
in Rome, the king of Ethiopia changes his name when he is
crowned, so that a king of old who befriended the king of
Portugal was known as Atani Tingal before his coronation, but
afterwards was named David. This great kingdom is bordered
by Egypt in the north, by great mountains in the south, and by
the Nile in the west.
On the north side of the continent, beyond the great
deserts, we find the Barbary Coast, stretching from Egypt to
Morocco, and nowadays ruled largely by the Turk. This brings
us back firmly into the known world.
XII Prester John, enthroned. Detail from a map of East Africa and Arabia
in Diego Homem’s Atlas for Queen Mary. England 1558. Collection British
Library.
Europe
Our own continent, once home to the civilizations
of the Ancients, now the radiant centre of Christendom,
spreading its light across the globe, and conducting
commerce throughout the world, is at the centre of the world
we have surveyed. It is known well-enough to need no further
elucidation within our current endeavour, which has been to
bring you the latest knowledge about the far and unknown
regions of the world.
Certainly we may consider Amsterdam, the worldrenowned capital of commerce, trade and navigation, to and
from where the treasures of all the continents flow, to be the
heart of Europe. If the world is an oyster, then Amsterdam is
certainly the pearl.
The Sheep Room, woven pile
carpet, 448 x 317.5 cm, South
Persia, presumably Afshar, 19th
century, donation by Maurits van
Loon
The Sheep Room , woven pile
carpet, 448 x 317.5 cm, South
Persia, presumably Afshar, 19th
century, donation by Maurits van
Loon
The Sheep Room, woven pile
carpet runner, 490 x 100 cm
Northwest Persia, 19th century
donation by Maurits van Loon
The Sheep Room, woven pile
carpet runner, 448 x 317.5 cm
South Persia, presumably Afshar
mid 19th century, donation by
Maurits van Loon
The Sheep Room, woven pile
carpet, 141 x 107.5 cm, Northwest
Persia, Senneh, 19th century,
purchased by Philippa van Loon
The Drakensteyn Room, woven
pile carpet, 435 x 304 cm,
Northwest Persia, Heriz, 19th
century, donation by Maurits van
Loon
The Red Bedroom, cut pile carpet, 375 x 273 cm, Northwest Persia,
1930, donation by Maurits van Loon
The Red Bedroom, carpet runner
415 x 105 cm, Northwest Persia
20th century, donation by Maurits
van Loon
The Red Bedroom, carpet runner
490 x 102 cm, Northwest Persia
20th century, donation by Maurits
van Loon