De nieuwe groote lichtende Zee-fakkel

Johannes van Keulen I founded the Amsterdam publishing house In de Gekroonde Lootsman in 1678 and became closely associated with the production of sea charts, atlases, and pilot books.

His De nieuwe groote lichtende Zee-fakkel was one of the most important Dutch pilot guides of the late seventeenth century.

This title page belongs to vol. 2 and presents navigation as a discipline grounded in study, measurement, celestial observation, and seamanship.

In the lower register, nine men gather around a terrestrial globe, engaged in study and measurement.

One measures distances with dividers, emphasising mathematical precision, while another looks skyward holding a cross-staff or similar navigational instrument, a gesture associated with celestial navigation.

Others consult books, charts, and instruments, turning the lower half of the image into a scene of collective maritime learning.

A flaming torch, held prominently among the group, functions as both a literal and symbolic reference to the title Zee-fakkel, signifying guidance, illumination, and safe passage at sea.

Above them, a zodiacal arch links the earthly work of navigation to the heavens.

Classical gods and personifications gather in the upper register: Jupiter appears with his eagle and thunderbolts, Juno with her peacocks, and Apollo with his lyre.

Additional figures evoke time, war, travel, and navigation.

The female figure of Navigation holds a guiding star and a small ship, suggesting both direction and protection.

The title page therefore connects the practical tasks of chart reading, measuring, and observing with a larger celestial and mythological order.

It presents the Zee-fakkel not simply as a book of charts, but as a disciplined body of knowledge through which mariners could interpret the globe, the heavens, and the sea.