Spice Islands Indonesia Map - Year 1598
The famous "Spice Map," covering the Philippines and Maritime Southeast Asia, including the famed Spice Islands of Indonesia, originally published by Petrus Plancius in the year 1596. Plancius based his map on covertly-obtained Portuguese manuscript charts. The map is a vast improvement over previously printed maps of the region, with most of the islands well-delineated, well-placed, and correctly named.
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The map is densely engraved with detail and cartographic decoration. Each island is thickly blanketed with toponyms. Some of the place names have were communicated to the mapmaker via Portuguese materials, but others were from earlier sources. For example, Beach in the lower southwest corner stems from Marco Polo.
New Guinea and the islands to the east are unfinished, with open coastlines to the south. This reflected the state of knowledge at the time, and the hypothesis that they might connect to a large southern continent.
While extraordinarily well-formed for the time, there are a few oddities in the map that have to do with it being a still little-known, to the Dutch, area. Palawan is confused with the Calamianes. The west coast of New Guinea is separated and shown as the island of Seram (Ceiram), which also has the Guinean port of Canam. This last detail would be repeated in later maps, such as those by Linschoten and Rossi.
In the seas, rhumb lines criss-cross the water, suggesting possible navigation. This navigational theme is echoed in the sailing ships that are in seas too. Beware, however, as there are many sea monsters dotting the map as well. A massive compass rose is a distinctive feature, as are the detailed strapwork cartouches housing the title, scale bars, and publication information.
In addition to the map's importance as an iconic illustration of the opening of the spice trade to Dutch traders, this map served as the model for Jodocus Hondius's Philippinae Insulae, the first printed map of the Philippine Islands.