Due to its strong design and engraving expertise, the map was a commercial success for de Wit and others. After the plates were sold at auction, they were purchased by Louis Renard, who issued them under his own imprint. This example is from the Renard re-issue, and it is strong and fine original hand colour.

The main source for this map is de Wit’s own wall map of 1662 which it follows almost verbatim in many places. In North America, Frederik de Wit duplicates many features such as the early configuration of the Great Lakes still having unknown shores open to the west. California remains an island, as was the prevalent belief at the time; the model drawn is based on the early Henry Briggs configuration of 1625, with a flat top, eschewing the more ‘modern’ Nicolas Sanson model with its three northern ‘fingers’. There is no detail north of California although the presence of a Northwest Passage is heavily implied. East Asia is surprisingly inaccurate. The shape of China is based on the latest surveys by the Jesuit Martini. Africa is based loosely on Nicolaes Visscher, but with the elongation of the western coast being traced back to the maps of Hendricus Hondius and 

 in the early seventeenth century.

The elaborately decorative borders were etched by the master engraver Romeyn de Hooghe. Large scenes in each corner allegorically represent the elements: Air is represented in the upper right as a series of classical gods and goddesses sitting on clouds. Fire is represented by scenes of war in the upper left. Earth, in the lower left, shows a bucolic farming scene. Finally, in the lower right, a marine scene with Neptune and several merpeople signifies water. Two further spheres in the upper and lower-centre, show the north and south poles with the spaces between them and the large spheres filled with miniature figures representing the continents in the upper-centre and seasons in the lower-centre.

Frederik de Wit (1630–1706) moved to Amsterdam in 1648 where he began work as a cartographic engraver. His plan of Haarlem was issued around the same year as well as city views for Antonius Sanderus’s ‘Flandria Illustrata’. He was initially apprenticed to 

, but by 1654 he had his own business, issuing his own map of the world, ‘Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula’, as both a wall map and a folio map sheet in 1660. Two years later, he began to print atlases, the earliest of which were small compilations of prints from the stock of contemporaries.

De Wit was granted the privileges of citizenship of Amsterdam after he married Maria van der Way, who was a native of the city. He became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke there in 1664. In 1675, he published a maritime atlas, ‘Tabula Maritimae’ and in 1695, a book of city views of the Netherlands, ‘Perfekte aftekeningen der steden van de XVII Nederlandsche provincien’. The plates were later bought by the Blaeu family and reused for their town books. After the death of de Wit, Maria continued the business until 1710, but his son, a successful stockfish merchant, did not follow his father into cartography.

This celebrated map, known as the ‘Maritime’ due to its inclusion in Frederik de Wit’s atlases of sea-charts, was first issued in 1668. It is recorded in several separate states and acted as a template for several mapmakers such as Cornelis Danckerts, the Ottens brothers, and Gerard Hulst van Keulen, among others. Its influence lasted well into the eighteenth century despite the general trend towards a more scientific outlook during the Age of Enlightenment.

The elaborately decorative borders of this map were etched by the master artist and engraver Romeyn de Hooghe. Large scenes in each corner allegorically represent the elements. Two further spheres in the upper and lower-centre, show the north and south poles with the spaces between them and the large spheres filled with miniature figures representing the continents on the upper-centre and seasons on the lower-centre.

This glorious map, known as the “Maritime” due to its inclusion in Frederik de Wit’s atlases of sea-charts, was first issued in 1668. It is recorded in several separate states and acted as a template for several mapmakers such as Cornelis Danckerts, the Ottens brothers, and Gerard Hulst van Keulen, among others. Its influence lasted well into the 18th century despite the general trend towards a more scientific outlook during the Age of Enlightenment.

Double-page engraved copperplate double-hemisphere map of the world, with contemporary hand-colour in full.

De Wit’s 'Maritime' World Map