Guiana sive Amazonum Regio.

Willem Blaeu’s decorative map of the Guianas, Lake Parima (Parime Lacus), and the route to El Dorado was initially issued in 1630 (with some variants were published well in to the 1660s; this map 1634). 

The map covers 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 searching for the Kingdom of El Dorado. 

Today we know that El Dorado did not exist but was rather an amalgam of authentic 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 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 dominant trading empire in the Amazon was the Manoa, who, though based near modern-day Manaus, pursued trade routes from the foothills of the Andes to the Amazon and Orinoco Deltas. 

While the rainy season prevented Raleigh from moving forward, for 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 they had various golden trinkets for sale. This was 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 to engage Raleigh, could only explain that they traveled across 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.

Showing the Duyvels Eylanden, off the coast of (French) Guiana. This was Devil’s Island, the French penal colony of Cayenne. Its most famous prisoner was Alfred Dreyfus, who was unjustly convicted of treason on 5 January 1895. Émile Zola’s “J’accuse” was based on the Affaire Dreyfus.

The map is beautifully decorated with three cartouches, ships, sea battles, monsters and a fine compass rose.

As Willem Blaeu died in 1638, most of his maps were published by his son Joan. This map has his (engraved) signature and was published in volume II of a French edition of his "Le Theatre du Monde ou Nouvel Atlas", dated 1638, therefore published the last year of his life.

From early on Willem Jansz. Blaeu aimed to publish an atlas to compete with the Hondius-Jansson Atlas. By 1630, he had published at least 17 folio-size maps. Blaeu realized his plan soon after he had acquired the copper plates of the atlas maps by Jodocus Hondius. The "Appendix followed in 1630.
In 1635 he finally realized an "international edition" of a world atlas, the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum".
This example is from a very rare 1638 French text edition with the same copperplates as the 1635 edition. However, the text on the verso was reset in two text columns. This edition is the last version the great master printed under his patronage.

More about maps by Willem Blaeu. [+]

Reference: Koeman/V.d.Krogt, Atlantes Neerlandici, Vol.2, 112.2.