Valentijn, Francois
1724

Antique Dutch View of Acapulco Harbor in Mexico

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Haven van Aquapulco in t’Coninkryk van Nova Spagnien in de Zuyd Zee

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Fascinating antique panoramic view of the harbor of Acapulco, Mexico ("Aquapulco") from the early eighteenth century. This copperplate-engraved view has a legend at bottom left corner keyed to six locations on the scene:

Acapulco village
Fort San Diego (with lattitude and longitude coordinates)
Grote mont. (harbor entrance)
Punta el Grifo
Kleyne mont. (channel between the mainland and la Roqueta island)
Haven van Marques (Puerto Marques Bay)

This colorful old view of the Acapulco area is by Francois Valentijn (or Valentyn) from 'Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien' published from Amsterdam in 1724 by Joannes van Braam. Valentijn ( 1666–1727 ) was a Dutch minister and naturalist who worked in the East Indies for the V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie). It is likely that Valentijn's access to V.O.C. maps and documents provided much source material for the eight volumes with over one thousand engravings. However, the basis for this relief map of Acapulco is an earlier watercolor by Dutch artist Johannes Vingboons who derived his work from drawings made in New Spain by Juan Gómez de Trasmonte and Adrian Boot before 1628.

(Connolly, Priscilla. "Vingboons, Trasmonte and Boot: European Cartography of Mexican Cities in the Early Seventeenth Century". 2014. Internet)

Two interesting graphical elements are the compass atop the title block at left which gives the orientation of the site and also in the far right bottom corner is a barely visible image of a woodsman with axe, removing a limb from the tall tree.