Paesi Bassi / Belgio / Lussemburgo - Historical map of the Netherlands; Adriaen Huberti - BELGICARVM PROVINCIARVM NOVA DESCRIPTIO - 1581-1600

Exceptional and extremely rare 17th-century general map of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, finely engraved on copper and published in Antwerp by Adriaen Huberti, enriched with seventeen splendid coats of arms and preserved with magnificent original inking.

This extraordinary and monumental map is an iconographic document of the utmost importance for the history of European cartography and for the geopolitics of the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands. The plate offers an incredibly detailed and accurate chorographic depiction of the entire historic region of the Netherlands, captured during the delicate period of transition and conflict of the Eighty Years’ War. The map adopts the fascinating traditional orientation of the late-16th-century Flemish school, placing the west and the North Sea coastline at the top of the sheet. The work bears the imprint of the renowned publishing house of Adriaen Huberti in Antwerp, one of the most prestigious cartographic workshops of the Flemish Renaissance, known for the scholarly rigor of its ornamental designs.
The composition unfolds with astonishing richness of microscopic detail, tracing with absolute precision the dense network of polders, canals, rivers, forests, and the myriad villages and star-shaped fortified cities that dotted the region. The expanse of the North Sea, identified as Oceani Germanici Pars, is solemnly adorned with a majestic 32-point compass rose, leaping sea monsters, and fully rigged war galleons, while the inland basin of the Zuiderzee (Die Zvyder Zee) shows its complex coastline before the great modern land-reclamation projects. The most valuable feature for collectors and as a decorative element is in the upper-right corner, where a monumental, lavish baroque cartouche with scrollwork contains the title in Old Dutch, entirely surrounded by a superb official heraldic gallery featuring the seventeen crowned coats of arms of the region’s duchies, counties, and lordships, including those of Brabant, Flanders, Guelders, and Holland. The copy is in excellent overall condition, printed on sturdy contemporary paper bearing a watermark, with dense, crisp black inking and deep contrasts, ample intact original margins on all four sides, and a completely blank verso.

Dimensions 29 x 37 cm
It will be shipped by registered mail