Frisia occidentalis.

A rare separately published carte-a-figures of Friesland by Geelkercken in its first state. The title and the coats of arms of the eleven Frisian towns appear in the center of the top border. The title is flanked on each side by two town views. Left : Dockum and Franiker, right : Harlingen and Leeuwarden. In the lower right corner is a richly decorated cartouche with the dedication, the imprint and the scales. The map is flanked at the sides borders by costumed figures and the bottom border contains the remaining seven Frisian towns in an oval frame : Bolswart, Sneeck, Staveren, Worckum, Sloten, Yls and Hindelopen. Some towns views were copied from the models engraved by Pieter van den Keere for Jan Janssonius' edition of Guicciardini's "Description de tout les Pays-Bas" (Arnhem, 1613).

Nicolaas van Geelkercken was active in the mapping of Friesland and its towns in the years 1614-1616. For Ubbo Emmius's "De Frisia et Frisorum Republica" (Leiden, 1616) he provided an important series of plans of the eleven Frisian towns. A map of Eastern Friesland was also added to this work. A map of all of Friesland, however, was not included, but was published separately two years later (Schilder VI).

More about figured border maps [+]

Reference: Schilder, Monumenta cartographica neerlandica, VI, 64.1