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| Keywords: 1635 Blaeu Map Guiana, Venezuela, and El Dorado - Geographicus - Guiana-blaeu-1635.jpg Assessments 1 Artwork Creator Willem Janszoon Blaeu This is G Blaeu's remarkable c 1635 map of the northeastern parts of South America Lake Parima Parime Lacus and the route to El Dorado Blaeu initially issued this map in 1630 and variants were published well in to the 1660s This example dates to the 1635 German edition of Blaeu's atlas The map covers from Isla Margarita and the Orinoco Delta eastward as far as Tampico and southwards as far as the Amazon River This region of South America generated considerable European interest in the early 17th century following the publication of Sir Walter Raleigh's fascinating Discovery of the Large Rich and Beautiful EMPIRE Of GUIANA Raleigh's expedition traveled down the Orinoco River in search of the Kingdom of El Dorado Today we know that El Dorado did not exist but was rather an amalgam of very real tribal traditions and the European lust for gold Nonetheless in the 16th century tales of El Dorado were common conversation along the port cities of the Spanish Main Having explored a considerable distance down the Orinoco Raleigh's expedition found itself mired in a remote tribal village at the onset of the rainy season While waiting for an opportunity to return north a trading delegation arrived At this time the dominate trading empire in the Amazon were the Manoa who though based near modern day Manaus pursued trade routes to from the foothills of the Andes to the Amazon and Orinoco Deltas While the rainy season prevented Raleigh from moving forward for the Manoa it had the opposite effect The heavy rains inundated the vast Parima flood plain creating a great inland sea consequently opening an important trade connection between the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers When the Manoa arrived Raleigh and his men noticed that they had various golden trinkets for sale This was apparently enough for Raleigh to deduce that they must indeed be from the hidden kingdom of El Dorado When Raleigh asked where the traders came from the locals with no common language with which to engage Raleigh could only explain that they traveled across a great water and were from Manoa Raleigh's presumptuous narrative inspired many early cartographers to map this massive lake with the city of El Dorado or Manoa on its shores in the unexplored lands between the Orinoco and Amazon River basins In addition to Blaeu's fascinating depiction of Lake Parima among the most prominent such in any mapping of this region there are also a number of attractive decorative elements Three sailing ships ply the waters and just under the compass rose a scary looking sea monster swims toward shore A decorative baroque title cartouche appears in the upper right quadrant and at the bottom of the map to small cartouches frame a distance scales and Blaeu's signature Uncolored as issued Willem Blaeu en 1635 Incluye el lago Parima Parime Lacus y la ruta a El Dorado Willem Blaeu localisant l'Eldorado dans le plateau des Guyanes près d'un légendaire « lac Parimé » inspiré par Gaspar de Carvajal cartógrafo neerlandês Willem Blaeu 1571-1638 mostra a parte nordeste da América do Sul o lendário lago Parime Parime Lacus e a rota para a cidade de Eldorado 1635 undated Size in 20 15 object history credit line accession number Guiana-blaeu-1635 Blaeu G <i>Atlantis Appendix sive pars altera continens tab geographicas diversarum Orbis regionum</i> 1630 Geographicus-source PD-old-100 Old maps of Brazil Old maps of French Guiana Old maps of Guyana Old maps of Suriname Old maps of the history of Venezuela 1635 maps Portolan charts by Willem and Johannes Blaeu Maps in Latin Amazon Delta Maps of the Orinoco watercourse system Orinoco Delta Old maps of the Amazon River Fictional lakes Erebato River Featured pictures of Brazil Featured pictures of French Guiana Featured pictures of Guyana Featured pictures of Suriname Featured pictures of Venezuela | ||||
