Brazil

Brazil in the early seventeenth century
Joannis de Laet, 1583-1649.
"Provincia de Brasil,"
from his Novus orbis, seu Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis. . . . Novis tabulis geographicis et variis animantium, plantarum fructuumque iconibus illustrati.
Leiden: Elzevir, 1633.

De Laet's small folio about America was first published with a Dutch text in 1625 and again in 1630, republished with this Latin text in 1633, and then again in French in 1640. De Laet's maps were produced with the help of Hessel Gerritz, a former apprentice of W. J. Blaeu (see next item). This specially-bound copy of the Latin version is stamped with the arms of Cardinal Richelieu. 

Picturing seventeenth-century Brazil, I
Willem Janssoon Blaeu, 1571-1638,
"Paraiba et Rio Grande,"
from Joan Blaeu, 1596-1673, comp., Le grand atlas, ou, Cosmographie blaeviane: en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer et le ciel; v.12. Amerique.
Amsterdam: Chez Jean Blaeu, 1667. Kendall Collection.

Pariaba, in northeast Brazil, was first settled in 1584, as a centre for sugar-cane production. The twelve volumes of maps in this collection, the Grand Atlas, published by Blaeu's son in various editions with accompanying text in different major languages, cover the whole known world and constitute the single most important Renaissance map series in Thomas Cooper Library. The beautiful hand-colored copperplates of the Blaeu atlas are nearly all reprintings of maps originally engraved and issued by the elder Baeu in the 1630s and 1640s.
Further Blaeu maps of Brazil include a general map of the whole country; San Salvador and Bahaia de Todos Santos; Sergipe del Rei; Pernambuco (north), and Pernambuco (south).

Picturing seventeenth-century Brazil, II 
Arnoldus Montanus, fl. 1670,
"Olinda de Phernambuco,"
from his De Nieuwe en onbekende weereld: of Beschryving van America en 't zuid-land, vervaetende d'oorsprong der Americaenen en zuid-landers, gedenkwaerdige togten derwaerds, gelegendheid der vaste kusten, eilanden, steden, sterkten, dorpen, tempels, bergen, fonteinen, stroomen, huisen, de natuur van beesten, boomen, planten en vreemde gewasschen, Gods-dienst en zeden, wonderlijke voorvallen, vereeuwde en nieuwe oorloogen: verciert met af-beeldsels na 't leven in America gemaekt.
Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1670-71. Alfred Chapin Rogers Collection.

Little is known about Montanus, but it is interesting that the Brazilian state depicted here, Pernambucio on the northeast Atlantic coast, though settled bu the Portuguese as early as 1524, had been occupied by his Dutch fellow-countrymen from 1630-1654. Later, in 1817, just before Brazilian independence, Pernambuco would be the centre of an uprising against Portuguese rule. 

Picturing seventeenth-century Brazil, III
John Ogilby, 1600-1676.
"Sinus Omnium Sanctorum [The Bay of All Saints],"
from his America: being the latest, and most accurate description of the New World; containing the original of the inhabitants,and the remarkable voyages thither.
London: Printed by the author, 1671. Large paper copy, from the Kendall Collection.

The city of Bahia or Sao Salvador, on Bahia de todos sanctos (the Bay of All Saints) south along the Atlantic coast from Pernambuco, was founded by the Portuguese in 1549. Ogilby's America, both text and plates, was largely plagiarized from the work of Montanus the year before (see previous item), thus allowing display of a further Brazilian engraving of the period. Note: the best-known Ogilby engraving, Moxon's "Lords Proprietors' Map" of South Carolina, added the following year, with no equivalent in Montanus, is displayed on the wall to the far right, in connection with the showing of a recent (non-Brazilian) donation. 

Updated 19 September 2002 by the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
Copyright © 2000, the University of South Carolina.
URL: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/sccoll/brazil/brazil3.html