Goos, Pieter (1615-1675).

folio (455 x 290mm.), [18]pp., illustration: printed title within elaborate engraved allegorical border incorporating vignette, and 40 double-page or folding engraved sea- and coastal charts, contemporary hand colour, binding: contemporary vellum, green silk ties, title with 2 wormholes, frayed at edges (just affecting engraved area), some marginal soiling and staining at lower margins, a few maps with narrow upper margin, binding slightly soiled

Koeman IV, Goos 5A (the charts as 1B, with revisions as described under 5A); Phillips, Atlases 5690

Although Goos was one of the best-known maritime booksellers of Amsterdam, and responsible for publishing a number of different sea-atlases or pilots, his work was very much derivative. For example, in the case of the Zee-Atlas, Goos relied heavily on Hendrick Doncker’s Zee-Atlas, published in 1659, for his charts.

Goos’s background was more as an engraver – following on from his father Abraham. Unlike Doncker and his other contemporaries, Pieter Goos’s intention was less to produce a functional sea-atlas but more a visually appealing volume to be consulted in a library environment – hence the emphasis on the title-page on the utility of the atlas to “Heeren en Kooplieden” (gentlemen and merchants) in advance of “Schippers en Stuurlieden” (pilots and seamen).

Unlike his rivals, Goos never undertook substantial revision of his Zee-Atlas, either of the text or charts. Indeed, there are only minor differences between editions. The standard form of the index calls for forty charts, which can be assumed to be the expected complement, but the Zee-Atlas was also available with forty-one charts, and individual examples of the various editions can be found with an additional chart. Perhaps the most famous chart in the volume is the “Paskaert van Nova Grenada, en t’Eylandt California”, one of the two earliest Dutch printed charts to focus on the “island” of California, a famous and long-lived cartographic misconception.

Goos’s atlas is the most aesthetically pleasing of the early Dutch sea-atlases. Koeman notes that “The... beautiful sea-atlas reflect[s] a high professional standard. The many editions published over twenty-five years are an indication of the customers’ appreciation”.