Vue de l’Aiguade de l’Ile de Tinian. Gedzigt van de Water-Plaats van’t Eiland Tinian.

Title

Vue de l’Aiguade de l’Ile de Tinian. Gedzigt van de Water-Plaats van’t Eiland Tinian.

Description

Decorative view of the island Tinian in the northern Mariana Islands (Guam).

ca. 1760

Artist

Schley, van der (1715-1779)

Jakob van der Schley (1715 -1779) was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for "La Vie de Marianne" by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), "Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme", published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages" are signed by van der Schley.

Historical Description

Guam is the largest and southernmost island of the Mariana Islands archipelago in the Western Pacific Ocean. It is a foreign territory of the United States. The capital is Hagatna, formerly Agana. In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to discover the archipelago, formerly also known as Ladrones (Ladrons), and his sailors named it Islas de Ladrones (Island of Thieves: "Thieves' Islands") because of thefts by islanders who had come on board. The Marianas became the hub of the Spanish Asian fleet with the Manila Galleon. On Guam, the necessary infrastructure was developed to supply the galleons. Later, in honor of Maria Anna of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, the Spanish renamed the archipelago "Islas Marianas", a name that has survived to this day.