Nova Guinea et in Salomonis

Title

Nova Guinea et in Salomonis

Description

Map partially shows Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and a title cartouche.

ca. 1609

Artist

Kaerius (1570-1630)

Pieter van den Keere, or Petrus Kaerius (1570-1630). He was born in Ghent, and in 1584 moved with his family for religious reasons to London. From his time in England there is a map of Ireland from 1592, Hyberniae novissima descriptio. It was published by Hondius and served as a model for later editions of the Theatrum of Abraham Ortelius. Keere also contributed to John Norden's Speculum Britanniae of 1593. He also worked with Petrus Bertius, Cornelis Claesz, Petrus Plancius, the House of Visscher, and Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer. In 1595, there appeared a large wall map of Europe in 10 sheets, Nova totius Europae descriptio. From 1603, Keere began creating large urban panoramas, including Utrecht, Cologne, Amsterdam, and Paris. Around 1604, he was preparing the publication of the atlas Germania Inferior id est Provincuarum XVII. This first appeared in 1617, with a foreword by Petrus Montanus.

Historical Description

The Spaniard Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra discovered the archipelago for Europe in 1568. His expedition explored the southern part of the archipelago and named the islands of San Cristoval, Guadalcanal and Ysabel. With the death of Mendaña the position data of the islands was lost. Philipp Carteret landed on the east coast of Gower Island in the north in 1767, but without realizing that the island was part of the old Spanish discovery. The following year Louis Antoine de Bougainville explored the northern area of ​​the Solomon Islands and named Bougainville, Buka and Choiseul. He also traveled the sea lanes between the islands. The French Jean François Marie de Surville was the first European to stay on the archipelago for a long time. Surville gave some islands the French name they still have today. When he returned to France, he reported on his stay in the “land of murderers” (Terre des Arsacides). In 1788 the Briton John Shortland anchored on the east coast of an archipelago island. Assuming he discovered a larger land mass, he named the island New Georgia.