This rare chart shows the coastline of Venezuela from just west of Lago de Maracaybo (Maracaibo) to just east of Barsalona (Barcelona). The Lesser Antilles islands are depicted from Aruba to Orchila. The map is beautifully engraved with bold coastlines and faint rhumb lines. Detail is confined to the coasts with many place names, including Caracas and Coro. A large mountain, Parago Ana (Santa Ana mountain), is depicted on the Paraguana Peninsula. A fine compass rose orients the chart with north on the bottom and strapwork cartouches complete the adornment.

Arent Roggeveen, a land surveyor and mathematician, taught navigation for the Dutch East and West India Companies. He also helped maintain their collection of hydrographic manuscripts and charts. In the mid 1660s, Roggeveen compiled a series of large-scale sea charts of North America and the West Indies, which was published by Pieter Goos in Het Brandende Veen or The Burning Fen. This landmark atlas was the first Dutch pilot to focus on the Americas, with a number of regions mapped in larger scale than in any previously printed work. After Goos died in 1679, his widow sold the plates to Jacob Robijn, who reissued the maps with his name added to the title, as seen here. Both editions are extremely rare.

References: Shirley (BL Atlases) #M.ROG-1b.

Condition: B

Lightly toned and foxed with minor damp stains in bottom corners. Trimmed close to neatlines at bottom left and right, apparently as issued.