Peru

The Spanish Empire in Peru less than 75 years after the conquest of the Incas.

This fascinating map of the coast of South America is oriented with east at the top and covers portions of the modern-day countries of Peru and Bolivia. Around the time of publication, the region was under the authority of the Spanish crown and organized as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The Incan Empire had been conquered and almost entirely eradicated less than a century earlier, and the area had been quickly filling with mines, missions, and military outposts – all critical to the organization of Spain’s new empire in the Americas.

Of notable interest is the town of Potosi, founded in 1545 near the silver-rich mountain of Sumaq Urqu. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, nearly 80% of the world’s silver was extracted from this mountain and shipped overseas.

The map was published in Leiden in 1630 as part of Johannes de Laet’s Nieuwe Wereldt often Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien (Description of the West Indies). The work was originally issued in 1625 and contained ten maps – this is from the slightly updated version that contained fourteen maps and an additional 100 pages of text, reflecting the increased interest of the Dutch in the New World.

Described by Philip Burden as “arguably the finest description of the Americas published during the seventeenth century,” the maps in de Laet’s work were based directly off the cartography of Hessel Gerritsz, considered by some to be the foremost mapmaker of the Dutch Golden Age of Cartography. Gerritsz was the exclusive cartographer for the Dutch East India Company and had access to some of the most up-to-date information available. His maps are generally only available in manuscript form and those published by de Laet are some of the few available to collectors today.

Johannes de Laet was no slouch, either, and he used meticulous research and contemporary sources when compiling his geographic data. As a director of the newly formed Dutch West India Company, the latest information from private correspondence, manuscripts, and other company secrets would have also been made available when compiling the maps.

Sources: Shirley (BL Atlases) G.LAET-1b, Burden,