Utrecht Map 1617 Kaerius Costumes & Coats of Arms Print - Utrecht, Amersfoort, Amsterdam, Zuiderzee

This Ultraiectum Dominium is a fine early map of the Utrecht region by Petrus Kaerius, also known as Peter van der Keere, and it appeared in his Germaniae Inferior id est, XVII Provinciarum ejus novae et exactae Tabulae Geographicae, first published at Amsterdam in 1617. The catalog notes that Van der Keere's atlas was the first separately published atlas of the Low Countries. The map includes a view of Utrecht, multiple coats of arms and costumes showing typical regional dress, details that make it more than a plain map of a province. It is an early example of the decorative style of Dutch map publishing, set out with care and bordered by figures. The sheet therefore carries three kinds of information at once: the geography of the province, the arms of its families and towns, and the dress of its people.

The atlas treated the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries one by one, and the sheet of Utrecht was one of its engraved sheets. A vignette of the city, with coats of arms in the borders and figures in local dress, gave the reader a sense of the province's character. Kaerius worked in Amsterdam when the city was becoming the center of European map publishing, and his small, handy atlas competed with the great folios of the day. The sheet is a good example of what a compact atlas of the early seventeenth century could do, with limited space and a great deal of detail.

A collector of early Dutch maps, a family with roots in Utrecht, or a reader of seventeenth-century costume and heraldry will find a handsome gift here. TheMapVault's Blaeu map of about 1645 shows the same province in a later hand, whereas this 1617 sheet is the earlier and more decorative version. Like every print in the collection, it ships unframed and is available in a full range of sizes, from a compact desk piece to a large-format statement print.