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Verbiest Map of the Viscounty of Veurne-Ambacht
Rare Pieter Verbiest map of the Viscounty of Veurne-Ambacht in the northwestern corner of the Belgian province of West Flanders.
The map is oriented with west at the top and includes an inset plan of the capital city of Veurne, pre-dating the Vauban fortification of the city.
The Viscounty thrived in from the 15th to the mid-16th Centuries, except for a brief period of economic and religious problems around 1566–1583, but thived again with the expansion agriculture of the region and especially during the reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella around 1600.
The map notes that Peeter Verbist was then working "op de Lombaerde vest in America."
Rarity
The map is extremely rare.
We note only the example at the Bibliotheque National de France, Cultuurbibliotheek (Sint-Lodewijkscollege, Brugge) and the Verbiest atlas in the collection of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the University of Vilnius. A facsimile edition was printed in Gent in 1875.
The map also appeared in the Catalogue of [the collection of] Monsieur Jacques Rottier, sold in Ghent in 1834 (item 1900, p. 144).
The Verbiest family was a family of mapmakers, printers and publishers. The family fled after the fall of Antwerp to the Netherlands, but returned in 1609 for the duration of the twelve-year truce. The family set up shop in Antwerp at Op de lombaerde vest onder het uithangbord Americ sign, the only map publishing firm to return to the south and publishing.
The patriarch of the family, Pieter Verbiest (ca. 1560-1643) had two sons, among whom Peter II (1607-1669) was the most prolific. It is not always clear which of them was the author of a particular map. Their cartographic production mainly consisted of loose maps.
The firm never published a standard folio atlas, but did produce a small atlas of the Netherlands (1636).
All Verbiest maps tend to be very rare on the market.
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