Historic Map : Stoopendaal Map of The World in Two Hemispheres, 1730, Vintage Wall Art

A fine 1730 world map was drawn by Stoopendaal for publication in the Keur Bible. Based on Visscher's very similar map of 1663, this map depicts the world on a hemisphere projection surrounded by stunning allegorical cartouche work. The cartouche work corresponds to that seen on the second world Bible map produced by Nicolaas Visscher, Orbis Terrarum Tabula Recens Emendata ... (Shirley 431, 1663), though the map has changed to accommodate evolving geographical suppositions. Stoopendaal revisions of Visscher's work include geographical updates as well as the incorporation of Copernican and Ptolemaic solar systems in the place of Visscher's polar projections - though curiously Visscher's labels remain. Cartographically Stoopendaal probably references Pieter Goos world map of 1666, Orbis Terrarum Nova Et Accuratissima Tabula ... (Shirley 438), to which this map is similar. . Our survey of this map will begin in North America where Stoopendaal has updated Visscher's model to incorporate the convention of a flat topped insular California. Baja California was subsequently discovered in 1533 by Fortun Ximenez, who had been sent to the area by Hernan Cortez. When Cortez himself traveled to Baja, he must have had Montalvo's novel in mind, for he immediately claimed the Island of California for the Spanish King. In some early maps, Visscher describes his inland sea with the following Latin note: Lacus iste quantum ex accolis colligi potuiy trecenta ut minimum miliaria en longitudinem pateat This lake, as far as can be learned from the inhabitants, stretches at least three hundred miles in length This is curiously identical to the text used by Jodocus Hondius on his world map of 1611 to describe his rendering of Verazanno's Sea. Later maps would see this great inland sea replaced by more contemporary rendering of the Great Lakes taken from the explorations of La Salle, Hennepin, and others.