Introduction
Between 1967 and 1971 Prof. C. Koeman published his 'Atlantes Neerlandici', in which he described all "Dutch" atlases up to 1880 which could be traced at the time, and gave bibliographic notes about cartographers and publishers and tried to trace the histories of the maps involved. This work was complemented in 1985 by Volume VI in which Dutch atlases published between 1880 and 1940 are described. This publication is an invaluable and indispensable aid when studying the history of the cartography of The Netherlands.
Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici New edition
Presently, Peter van der Krogt of Utrecht University is working on a completely revised edition of Koeman's bibliographical work. The preparation of this new edition of Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici started in 1993 and 1994 with the dispatch of a questionnaire to some 1,500 libraries world-wide, asking for their holdings of Dutch terrestrial atlases published before 1800 (sea atlases and atlases of the 19th and 20th century need a special approach). To facilitate answering for those libraries with alphabetical catalogues, only a list of the 11 most important publishers/authors was added. 10,000 copies of Dutch atlases turned out to be present in about 800 libraries, but the list is far from complete.
The first volume of the new Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici () has been published at the end of 1997.
For information, questions about the project and additions to the database of Dutch atlases by libraries who did not get or did not answer the questionnaire, please go to Peter van der Krogt's homepage.
The Index to the 'Atlantes Neerlandici' ( List of 'Dutch' atlases and (partial) facsimiles thereof )
This index is compiled from the indexes in Volumes I, II, III, IV, and VI. They have been put into one alphabetical order according to the codes Koeman used. The codes are retraceable to the volume they are taken from: codes beginning with "M." are derived from Volume IV (Celestial and maritime atlases and pilot books) and those ending in "(S)" are derived from Volume VI. Other codes refer to Volumes I, II, III, and VI. Codes which are printed fat (italic bold) derive from the "Editio secunda", which added 45 new titles.
Added to each title is a 6-digit call number. Those call-numbers which are not followed by a Koeman-code are additions to the original lists and those call-numbers which are printed fat are facsimiles. The facsimiles have the same call-number as the original publication, but are followed by a code which explains the nature of the facsimile. Then there follows the year of publication, place of publication and publisher.
At the moment I have identified 184 (69 <1880) new titles and 129 facsimiles, making a grand total of 3,338 (2,008 <1880) titles. Only those titles are included which are represented in the first and second editions of the Atlantes Neerlandici and those which are identified in the automated Dutch national union catalogue up till September 1, 1999.
Of the 3,025 (1,853 <1880) old titles a little over 50% are represented in the 8 institutions mentioned below. Mercator, Ortelius, Janssonius (5 Atlas Majors, except the German edition) and Blaeu (15 Atlas Maiors, except the second French edition) are well represented, as well as maritime atlases. It seems a rather fair representation of the Dutch golden age of cartography. The coverage will rise when smaller institutions will be inventoried, as some have small but eccentric holdings.
The most important Dutch map collections
State Museum "Dutch Maritime Museum" (Amsterdam), Library
Library Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam), Map Collection
University Library of Amsterdam (Amsterdam), Map Collection
General State Archives (The Hague), Department of Drawing
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library) (The Hague), Map Collections
University Library Leiden (Leiden), Map Collection
Maritime Museum "Prins hendrik" (Rotterdam)
Faculty of Geographical Sciences (Utrecht), Map Collection
Added to the description are the call-numbers of those atlases or facsimiles thereof which are located in the collection, just like in Koeman's thesis of 1961. However some caution is requested here. Most titles have been found by bibliographic comparison and this may mean that some are not noted down correctly because of a lack of sufficient discriminating information (e.g. the Van Keulen maritime atlases).
The 'atlantes neerlandici' with the Koninklijke Bibliotheek have all been found by autopsy and are enriched with the call- or shelf-number with which they have to be requested. There are also some texts on manuscript atlases and charts.
An earlier example of this index and the description of the collections was published in La cartografia dels Paisos Baixos (Cicle de conferencies sobre historia de la cartografia ; 4rt curs). Barcelona, Institut Cartografic de Catalunya, 1995, ISBN 84-393-3284-X.