In 1649 Claes Jansz. Visscher reissued and expanded the work of Barent Langenes’s 1598 Caert-Thresoor (#285, #294, #295, #296, #383, #388) as Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri quatuor denuo recogniti, a compact atlas divided into four parts: Europae, Asiae (titlepage, #10), Africae, and Americae nova descriptio. Alongside the inherited Langenes material, Visscher added twenty-three newly engraved maps including plates relating to recent Dutch discoveries in Australia and the East Indies (#11, #12, #371, #388). The atlas also incorporated revised versions of the earlier Hondius world maps #292, #293, and two maps by Benjamin Wright (this map and #370)
This map present the islands of Ternate and Tidore, shortly after the return of the second Dutch voyage to the East Indies (1598-1600), led by Jacob van Neck with Wybrand van Warwijck as vice-admiral. The fleet reached the Spice Islands in 1599, establishing trading relations and gathering detailed navigational intelligence.
Although engraved in 1601 in connection with the publication of the account of the second Dutch voyage (for the 1609 French title page see #380), the plate does not appear in surviving copies of the journals printed that year. It is first found in Visscher’s 1649 atlas.
The map presents the clove-producing islands of Ternate and Tidore in detailed profile, underscoring their strategic and commercial importance within the Moluccan spice trade. Portuguese fortifications are prominently identified, including “S. Paolo” on Ternate and two sites on Tidore labelled “Portuges fort” and “Portuges beste fort,” recording the still-visible, though increasingly vulnerable, Portuguese military presence in the region at the turn of the seventeenth century.
The concentration of named coastal settlements—Talange, Gonsora, Cubala, Telingame, etc—together with marked anchorages and defensive sites, reflects the practical priorities of the second Dutch expedition, for which control of harbours and proximity to clove-producing districts were critical. The engraving therefore functions not merely as a topographical representation but as record of commercial and strategic intelligence, capturing the islands at a pivotal moment in the intensifying European contenst for dominance in the spice trade.
Peter van der Krogt, ed., Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici, vol. 3 (’t Goy-Houten: HES & De Graaf, 1997–), 8571:341, ed. 341:54
Günter Schilder, Monumenta cartographica Neerlandica, vol. 7 (Canaletto, 2003), 271-277