Inde witte pascaert: Kaarten en atlassen van Frederick de Wit, uitgever te Amsterdam (ca. 1630-1706) / Jan Werner. Amsterdam: Universiteitsbibliotheek; Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1994. 72 p. ISBN: 90-6469-690-X. Dfl. 27.50 from Uitgeverij Canaletto, Postbus 68, 2400 AB Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands.

In 1981 The Amsterdam University Library acquired a copy of DeWit's twelve-sheet map of the world (1603-63), which measures about five by six feet. This accession completed the library's unique set of DeWit's wall maps, joining slightly smaller maps of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Like most older wall maps, they were badly in need of conservation, but treatment had to wait for a grant from the Steenbergen Foundation, a fund devoted to support of the University Library. The recent completion of restoration of these, and two other, wall maps provided the impetus for a major exhibition of DeWit's work, held at the library in the fall of 1994 and curated by the University Map Librarian, Jan Werner. This impressive catalog is the fruit of that exhibition. It begins with an essay summarizing DeWit's life and work in six major areas: world atlases, which contained as many as 160 maps; a series of town-books, with more than 150 town plans; a maritime atlas with up to 27 maps; wall-maps; and non-cartographic works, including town views and devotional and other prints. An interesting section of five pages is devoted to the restoration of the maps, undertaken by the firm of J. Sterken in Ugchelen. The second half of the work is devoted to a catalog of the 36 items that made up the exhibit, of which fully thirty-one are illustrated in whole or in part. An appendix listing DeWit's wall maps, a chronology, notes, bibliography, and index round out the volume, which is handsomely printed and has five color plates. An attractive and authoritative introduction to one of the most important Dutch publishers of the later seventeenth century.

Robert W. Karrow, Jr.
The Newberry Library