Historic Map : Danckerts Map of Florida, The West Indies, and The Caribbean , 1696, Vintage Wall Art

An absolutely stunning example of Cornelius Danckerts' important 1696 map of Florida, the West Indies, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Spanish Main. Cartographically influenced by Blaeu's 1636 map of the same region, this map covers from Mexico to the Antilles and from Florida to the Spanish Main, inclusive of Cuba, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles. The detail throughout is spectacular with missions, forts, cities, ports, rivers, lakes, indigenous groups, and an assortment of additional topographical details noted. Florida is labeled as the province of Tegesta, following the convention established by Dutch cartographers Johannes de Laet and Hessel Gerritzoon in 1630. The Tegesta were an indigenous tribe active in the southeastern parts of Florida, around what is today Miami-Dade. They were encountered in the 16th century by Ponce de Leon and by one of the ships commanded by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. Curiously, despite several expeditions and interesting earlier maps of Florida, Dankerts has chosen to leave the interior blank, noting neither the Everglades nor any of Florida's great lakes. Along the Spanish Main the great trading cities of Cartagena, Venezuela, and Valentia are noted, ss are a number of missions and indigenous centers in the interior. Maracaibo Bay is entirely misrepresented. Further east, Dankerts attempts to illustrate the countless islands of the Orinoco Delta. A title cartouche including two cherubs appears in the upper right quadrant. A key to the map's symbols, three distance scales, and an secondary Dutch description of the map appears above the map's printed border. The description declares that this map was made to illustrate the theater of war in the West Indies. The war in question is most likely the Nine Years' War (1688-97), fought between France and England over control of the New World.