Nova Anglia, Novvm Belgivm et Virginia
- 1642
- Cartographic
- Exhibit map
Johannes Janssonius, more commonly known as Jan Jansson, was one of the first Europeans to create maps of the New World. Two maps from this era became prototypes: the 1612 map of Virginia by John Smith and the 1651 map of New England by Jansson. Their general layouts were extensively copied from one mapmaker to another. This map is based on De Laet’s rare map of 1630 and is actually the third iteration of Jansson’s 1636 Nova Anglia, Novvm Belgivm et Virginia. This map was influential because it showed all of the current Dutch holdings from New England to Virginia. It is widely considered to be one of the first maps to contain the place name “Massachusets.” It also depicts “New Amsterdam” (New York), which was founded less than 20 years prior. Europeans’ increased interest after 1600 in the colonization of North America is concisely shown here and developed partially because of this map.
Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography. 2010. “The John Smith Map of Virginia: Derivations and Derivatives.” The Newberry Library. Accessed July 15, 2007. http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/ss24.html.
Smith, John. 1612. “Virginia…Discovered and Described by Captayn John Derivatives.” In A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Countrey, the Commodities, People, Government and Religion, edited by Joseph Barnes. Oxford: Joseph Barnes.
Jansson, Jan. 1642. Nova Anglia, Novvm Belgivm et Virginia. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC. In “1st Iteration (2005): The Power of Maps,” Places & Spaces: Mapping Science, edited by Katy Börner and
Deborah MacPherson. http://scimaps.org.
