De groote nieuwe vermeerderde zee atlas ofte water-werelt

Johannes van Keulen I founded the Amsterdam publishing house In de Gekroonde Lootsman (“In the Crowned Pilot”) in 1678 and established it as one of the leading Dutch firms producing sea charts, atlases, and pilot books.

This engraved title page was issued with De groote nieuwe vermeerderde zee atlas ofte water-werelt, first published in 1680 and reissued in numerous editions.

This example belongs to the 1693 Dutch issue and was designed by Jan Luyken and engraved by Aernout Naghtegael.

The composition links maritime navigation with celestial knowledge, hydrography, and command of the seas.

At the centre sits Neptune, crowned and holding his trident, before a large celestial globe.

A female figure places on his head a crown formed from the sterns of galleons, turning the sea god into an emblem of maritime power.

The central globe, Neptune’s trident, and the surrounding figures present the ocean as a space that can be measured, ordered, and navigated.

In the foreground, Europe, wearing a crucifix and accompanied by a bull, studies an open sea atlas showing a chart of the English Channel.

This direct reference to hydrography anchors the allegory in the practical purpose of Van Keulen’s atlas.

Nearby figures representing America, Asia, and Africa are identified through familiar early modern attributes, including feathered headdresses, a parrot, and lions.

These personifications make the title page global in scope, presenting the atlas as a guide to the maritime routes connecting the continents.

Above, Aeolus releases the winds from an inflated sack beneath a zodiacal arch, reminding the viewer of the unstable forces faced by mariners and the need for reliable navigational knowledge.

The title page therefore presents the Zee Atlas as both a practical maritime work and a learned cosmographical object, joining sea charts, winds, celestial order, and global trade within a single allegorical frame.