Tabula Islandiæ

It fell to Joris Carolus of Enkhuisen, a Dutch navigator and traveller in the North, to produce the most stable and durable version of the position and shape of Iceland, not only on maps made in Holland, but wherever people tried to form some picture of the country and display it on a map. More than a century passed before cartographers had access to newer and more reliable information about the country. The map appeared for the first time in the collection of Jodocus Hondius the younger from the 1620s.
After the death of Hondius his plates came into the possession of Willem Janszoon Blaeu. He printed his first edition of the map in his map collection, Atlantis appendix, in the year 1630. Joris Carolus' map of Iceland was printed without change in all editions of Blaeu's collection. The accompanying description of Iceland grew from one and a half pages to twelve. In the same year that Blaeu published his atlas Henricus Hondius, the younger son of Jodocus, and Johannes Janssonius put a collection on the market containing amongst others a copy of Joris Carolus' map of Iceland in Blaeu's version. There is very little difference between the two versions. The cartouche, as well as the name of the map and of the author, is unchanged. The name of Blaeu as publisher of the map is of course left out, and the scroll left blank where it was written.
The map's chief novelty were the Gunnbjarnar Islands (I. Gouberman) west of Ísafjardardjúp. They probably first appear on a map of Europe by Jodocus Hondius - probably the younger, since the map was not made until after 1613. It is likely that Carolus sought the idea of the islands from the map of Hondius.
On the map the length of the country is much the same as on Mercator's map, but the breadth is rather less, so that the proportion is nearer the true one. The map shows the influence of both versions of bishop Gudbrandur's map. The coastline resembles more Ortelius, but when it comes to placenames the map follows Mercator in selection and spelling. In spite of many errors, some of them serious, the map is a step in the right direction. The author had spent some time in the country, but there is very little trace of it on the map. The importance of his map in the history of Icelandic cartography does not derive from anything which it had to offer so much as from how durable it was and influential over a wide area.

Info

Author: Joris Carolus/Willem Janszoon Blaeu
Country: Netherlands
Year: 1630-1672

Publication 1
Language: Latin
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 2
Language: Spanish
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 3
Language: Dutch
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 4
Language: German
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 5
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 6
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm
Publication 7
Language: Dutch
Publication locations: Amsterdam
Year: 1630
Size: 38×49,5 cm