Belgii Novi, Angliae Novae et Partis Virginiae (New Netherland, New England and parts of Virginia) 1650.

Mapmakers: (Janssonius or Jansson) Jansz and (Johannes or Johan) Jan

This plate was engraved in 1650 based on a 1648 manuscript map that accompanied a 1649 petition on the New Netherland Commonalty delivered by Adriaen van der Donck to the States General (the governing body of the Dutch Republic). It urged the Dutch Republic to negotiate with England the exact borders between New Netherland and New England. Van der Donck’s 1649 Remonstrance provided all the arguments for the defense of New Netherland’s territorial integrity against New England’s encroachment. He argued that the English “contrary to the law of nations, regardless of right or wrong invaded” New Netherland. He delivered the manuscript map (from which this map is engraved) to the States General in order to support Adriaen Block’s original claim to New Netherland. He also called for a change in the North American based province’s governance and demanded the recall of Peter Stuyvesant. The significance of this map lies in the fact that it illustrates a historic, momentous decision – the first exercise of an American’s legal right to seek redress of a grievance to the highest governmental authority 143 years before ratification of that right in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. To control effectively the province, economic and political alliances with the natives were essential. The map, therefore, details all the known Indian tribes of New Netherland. This map is the second state, published about 1661 upon the 1660 knighting of De Raet to Baronet by Charles II of England. The 1650 plate was altered to include only De Raet’s coat of arms. The map was later copied by Nicholas Visscher (in 1651) who added a view of New Amsterdam – copied from a Joannes Blaeu engraving of 1650. Visscher’s composite map was then newly engraved/copied by Hugo Allard and Justus Danckerts in the mid-1650’s.