Creator Pieter Goos (ca. 1616-1675)

Date 1668

Dutch master, Pieter Goos's 'New Map  of the World' (Nieuwe werelt kaert). This is Plate 1 of his majestic 'Sea Atlas of the Water World' (De zee-atlas ofte water-wereld), and has dramatically coloured gold highlights, and richly illustrated narrative scenes symbolising the seasons and stages of life, Spring to Winter and youth to old age. The goose flying toward the sun is a play on the mapmaker's name. The map is unmistakably Dutch with tulips and ice skaters behind the figure of Winter, who is smoking a pipe. Goos's Sea Atlas was published by a remarkable woman, Goos's widow. Few women were trained members of the publishing guilds, but some worked alongside their husbands for decades, and inherited their guild rights to carry on the business.

Source: National Library of Australia