Nova Zembla, Waygats, Fretum Nassovicum et terra Samoiedum singula omnium emendatissime descripta

A captivating mid-17th-century maritime chart of the Russian Arctic.

This striking map of Russia’s far northern coast and the island of Nova Zembla provides an engaging mid-17th-century overview of the frigid Arctic region. The image captures the territory between the Kola Peninsula and the Yamal Peninsula, though based on the position of Bely Island and the Yenisei River, the geography of the latter is heavily fictionalized. The large island of Nova Zembla retains its distinctive crescent shape, but much of the eastern coastline is largely speculative.

For Europeans at the time, this bleak, remote island was much more than a patch of frozen tundra – it was a high-stakes checkpoint on the way to the Northeast Passage. Famed Dutch explorer William Barentz first attempted this mission in the mid-1590s. His final 1596 campsite is marked with a small hut. A nearby sea monster, modeled after a whale, also reflects Nova Zembla’s importance as a whaling depot. Toponyms are provided in an interesting combination of phonetic Dutch, Latin, and Romanticized Russian. A pair of decorative cartouches reflect the importance of the fur and ivory trade to Russia’s economy, with two members of the streltsy pictured in the upper left.

The beautiful copperplate engraved sheet was originally published in Amsterdam as part of the French edition (issued 1650-1657) of Johannes Jansson’s Atlas Novus. Commonly known as the ‘Water World’ volume, the lavish work was one of the first true maritime atlases issued for use by the general public.