An excellent example of the second state of Arnold Colom’s sea chart of South America below the equator. An inset extends the west coast coverage northwards to include Guatemala. Longitude is not recorded the results of which make the width of the continent look out of proportion. This is particularly noticeable with the Atlantic coastline of present-day Argentina. Considering how late the mapping of the southwest coast of South America was, it is much more accurate. Tierra del Fuego is displayed although lacking a southern shoreline.

The atlas is larger in format than most folio atlases of the time, so this is a nice larger chart. As might be expected it is covered in rhumb lines and contains two compass roses heightened in gold. The flourishes on the inset and title cartouche are also extensively gilded. This is one of the first and the rarest Dutch sea charts of South America

Arnold Colom (1623/4-68) was the son of Jacob Aerstz. Colom (1600-73) from Dordrecht, a printer and publisher of maps, globes, and books. “Father and son appear to have followed separate careers at first, Arnold producing his own independent atlases. In fact, his world atlas was published before that of his father. The first Dutch sea atlas of the world was Joannes Janssonius’ of 1650. However, that atlas was not particularly uniform or complete. Colom’s was large in format and is one of the most important of all the Dutch sea atlases produced.” (Burden).

This chart appears in the two Dutch editions of the ‘Zee-Atlas’ along with a French one unidentified by Koeman. The atlas is undated but was issued c.1658. In quick succession the plate number lower right was altered from ’10’ to ’13’. “Within a short time, the atlas faced competition from those of van Alphen, Doncker, van Loon, and even his father. It does not seem to have fared well, being very rare today. By 1663 he owed a considerable amount of back rent to his landlord, none other than Nicolaas Visscher. Colom gave him all eighteen of the plates for his atlas to cover this. Within five years Colom was dead.” (Burden). The copper plates ended up with Hendrick Doncker who re-issued them with his own imprint.

Provenance: Richard B. Arkway Inc. 1996; Juan and Peggy Rada Collection.Alegria et. al. (2007) pp. 1028-34; Buisseret (2007) pp. 1143-71; refer Burden (1996) 316; Koeman (1967) vol. 4 pp. 114-17 A.Col 2 no. 10; Martinic (1999) p. 201 no. 77; The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection (1979) no. 53 no. 14; Phillips (1909-) nos. 464 & 3330.