Willem & Jan Blaeu: Magni Mogolis Imperium
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Cartographer:
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Willem & Jan Blaeu
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Title:
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Magni Mogolis Imperium
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Date:
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c. 1640
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Published:
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Amsterdam
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Width:
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20 inches / 51 cm
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Height:
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15 inches / 39 cm
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Map ref:
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IC2367
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Description:
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Blaeu’s map of the Moghul Empire was not the first printed map of the region but was arguably the most influential. It was originally issued in the “Atlas Novus” of 1635 and then included within the Atlas Major until 1672.
The basic geographical outline is based on two main sources. One is Hugo van Linschoten and his map of the Indian Ocean published c.1599. He provides the distinctive curve to the west coast of the
Sub-continent of India, together with the shape of the Cambaya Peninsula or modern Saurashtra. The extent of the map and the interior detail is supplied by the Baffin Roe map first issued in 1619 but widely distributed in Samuel Purchas’s “Pilgrimes”, a compendium of English voyages published in 1625. Blaeu has skilfully integrated these two sources to form his own map which outlines the Empire of the Great Moghul.
The Empire covers much of modern India, especially the north, together with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The origin of the Baffin Roe map is truly intriguing. Sir Thomas Roe was the English ambassador sent to the Moghul emperor sent to negotiate terms and protection for English merchants. He became a personal friend of the Emperor Jahangir and was extremely successful in his aims. He also travelled extensively in the interior. He made detailed notes of his experiences as well as buying local documents and maps. His return journey to England was on the ship, Royal Anne (check) where he met William Baffin, the seaman and explorer, and together, they compiled a map, drawn by Baffin, based on Roe’s travels, notes and newly acquired sources.
In 1625, Samuel Purchas published an abridged account of Roe’s embassy in his “Pilgrimes” and illustrated it with a reduced version of this map. The “Pilgrimes” were successful and certainly available as source for Blaeu, who decided to include a map of such a commercially pivotal region in his new atlas. The result was a map which shows a far more accurate course of the Indus River; a collection of caravan routes which are detailed by small stops along their route, some of which form part of the centuries old Grand Trunk Road; and a far greater understanding of the position of the great cities of Northern India and Pakistan, such as Delhi, Agra and Lahore.
One feature which Blaeu did not export from the Baffin Roe map is the position and inclusion of two large bodies of water on the north east of the map. One of these was the mythical Lake Chiamay, the “mother of rivers”. This was a supposed huge lake in the mountains of Myanmar or Thailand which was the source of the great rivers of South East Asia. It first appeared in Ramusio’s map of the region in 1554 and was included on almost all maps of South East Asia from then on, sourcing often four but sometimes more of the great rivers. By the mid 18th century, as with so many geographical legacy myths, its existence began to be questioned and it finally disappeared by the 1760s.
The other body of water above Lake Chiamay is sourced from Ortelius’s map of China and appeared on all maps of that country based on Ludovico Giorgio and his Jesuit sources; it usually bore a panel of explanatory Latin text, which John Speed helpfully translated into English on his map of China of 1627. It explains that an enormous flood had created a lake in 1557 which had caused havoc and much loss of life. This was almost certainly a reference to the Shaanxi Earthquake of 1556, still cited as the deadliest earthquake ever recorded, which did cause enormous flooding and caused as many as 830,000 deaths.
As Amsterdam was the center of the map trade, Blaeu’s map was enormously influential due to its wide distribution and his own standing. It acted as a foundation map for the majority of Blaeu’s Dutch contemporary map makers, ensuring its continued use well into the 18th century.
[IC2367] |