Johannes Blaeu (1596–1673). Portus Calvus, showing Insula Tamaraca...1647

Johannes Blaeu (1596–1673)
Portus Calvus, showing Insula Tamaraca
From Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia, Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1647
Copperplate engraving
Sheet size: 13 x 10 inches

This finely executed map of the fortified island of Tamaraca and the adjacent mainland settlement of Porto Calvo is a superb example of Dutch cartographic artistry during the height of the Dutch West India Company’s occupation of northeastern Brazil. Published by Johannes Blaeu in Caspar Barlaeus’s monumental work Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia, the map documents the Dutch military and commercial presence along the Pernambuco coast under the governorship of Johan Maurits of Nassau.

Drawn with crisp precision and engraved in the Blaeu firm’s unmistakable baroque style, the map presents the island and coastline with a combination of scientific clarity and symbolic control. The Dutch fortification on Tamaraca—Castrum Auraiacum—is prominently depicted, commanding the entrance to the coastal rivers that led inland to sugar plantations and indigenous settlements. Inland paths, topography, and cultivated fields are shown in a schematic style typical of military maps, while the title cartouche and compass rose reflect Blaeu’s artistic elegance.

As part of Blaeu’s Rerum per Octennium, this map served not only as a geographical record but also as a tool of imperial propaganda, promoting the Dutch vision of enlightened colonization and commercial order in the tropics.