Ampla et accuratissima universi orbis terrarum tabula geographica aucta et emendata

Pieter Verbiest was an Antwerp engraver and publisher belonging to a prominent Flemish family of printmakers active during the first half of the seventeenth century. Published in Antwerp in 1630, this large world map closely follows Pieter van den Keere’s influential 1622 world map while incorporating new geographical information and a distinctive decorative programme. Although Pieter Verbiest is credited as publisher, the title also names his brother Isack Verbiest, indicating collaboration within the family workshop.

The map is engraved on Mercator’s projection and presents the world at a moment when European geographical knowledge was expanding rapidly but remained incomplete. California appears as an island, while the northern Pacific and Arctic regions retain many uncertainties. A note near California discusses the possibility of a passage linking the northern seas with the Atlantic, reflecting continued interest in a Northwest Passage. In the south, Terra Australis nondum cognita stretches across the lower part of the map, while the outline of New Guinea and Cape York reflects knowledge derived from Jan Carstensz.’s voyage of 1623 aboard the Pera. Verbiest adapted Pieter van den Keere’s 1622 world map but altered its decorative programme. The ornamental corner panels in van den Keere’s map are replaced by two polar hemispheres, while the cartouche in the upper right remains blank. A new and prominent cartouche over North America commemorates Jacques L’Hermite, commander of the Nassausche Vloot of 1623–26, surrounded by nine smaller portrait medallions of circumnavigators. Additional toponyms from the Nassausche Vloot appear in South America alongside names associated with Jacob Le Maire’s voyage.

Above the map, a decorative border presents allegorical personifications of the four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Each appears in a symbolic landscape. These figures derive from Jan Sadeler’s 1581 engravings after designs by Dirck Barendsz. and connect the map to a wider Flemish visual language of global allegory. A manuscript annotation on the verso, in French, reads table des quartes parties du monde (“map of the four quarters of the world”). Verbiest’s map combines established early seventeenth-century world-map design with newer Dutch discoveries, especially in northern Australia and the western Pacific.

Within the collection, this map relates to other world maps concerned with the southern continent, including Willem Jansz. Blaeu’s Nova totius terrarum orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula (9) and Joan Blaeu’s Nova et accuratissima totius terrarum orbis tabula (7).