Original hand-coloured copper engraved map of the World with gold outline by Jan van Jagen surrounded by allegorical representations of the continents based on Visscher. The Keur publishing family used Daniel Stoopendaal’s map of the World titled Orbis Terrarum Tabula Recens Emendata et in Lucem Edita for 70 years in their bibles. When the plate became worn, van Jagen was commissioned to engrave a new plate. Stoopendaal’s map featured iconic scenes from Greek mythology and intriguing geographical inaccuracies such as California, depicted as an island. Van Jagen’s map also embodies the artistic flamboyance and geographical understanding of its time with many corrections, California is now illustrated correctly as a peninsula, the addition of several Pacific islands; and a corrected East Asian coast line. The northwest coast of North America is left completely blank and the incomplete coast line of Australia and New Zealand are shown after Tasman discoveries. The decorative vignettes now depict exoticism, with animals, including ‘beasts of burden’ in their natural habitats and numerous images of the idyllic lives being led by the indigenous peoples from the four corners of the world.
Australia is now titled Nieuw Holland. Not all Dutch discoveries are annotated on the West and Northern coasts of Australia. Noted are Landt van d’Eendracht, Land r Witt, and t Land der Negers in the West, and in the north Landt v Van Diemens, and Lande v Arnhem.  Annotations describing rivers and landmarks along the East coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria are shown, if not to the same extent as that of the Stoopendaal.
 In the intersection of geography and astronomy, the map includes diagrams of the Copernican and Ptolemaic solar system theories, resting between the hemispheres, as did Stoopendaal’s. These illustrations reflect the cosmological debates of the era, providing a visual summation of two competing theories of celestial mechanics.
J.V Jagen’s signature bottom left of centre. Dutch text on verso Jan van Jagen (1709-1800). Jan van Jagen and Carl van Jagen were active engravers based in Amsterdam. The Jagen’s were active throughout the 18th century and are known to have engraved maps for such prominent Dutch firms as Ottens, De la Feuille and Rattelband. Despite a large body of work little else is known of these cartographers.
References:Â Poortman & Augusteijn #137
