Old Map of Norway by Joan Blaeu, 1662

Joan Blaeu’s Old Map of Norway

Joan Blaeu published this imposing map of Norway in Amsterdam in 1662 as part of his celebrated Atlas Maior. Its title, Norvegia Regnum, vulgo Nor-Ryke, identifies the country in Latin and by its familiar Scandinavian name: the Kingdom of Norway, commonly called Nor-Ryke.

It was one of the most important seventeenth-century printed maps devoted specifically to Norway. Rather than treating the country as a narrow edge of a general map of Scandinavia, Blaeu gave its long coastline, mountain ranges, settlements and administrative geography a sheet of their own.

Map Details

• Original title: Norvegia Regnum, vulgo Nor-Ryke
• English title: The Kingdom of Norway, commonly called Nor-Ryke
• Cartographer and publisher: Joan Blaeu
• Published: Amsterdam, 1662
• Atlas: Atlas Maior
• Region shown: Norway from its southern coast northwards towards Senja, with adjoining parts of Sweden
• Principal places: Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, Christiania or Oslo, Fredrikstad and other coastal settlements
• Format: Hand-coloured copperplate engraving
• Relief: Mountains and uplands represented pictorially
• Other features: Fjords, rivers, islands, forests, roads, political divisions, ships, heraldry, title cartouche and scale

A Royal Survey of Norway

The geographical foundations of the map can be traced to a survey commissioned by King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway in 1631. The king wanted improved maps of his extensive realm, which then included Denmark, Norway and territories that extended into parts of present-day Sweden.

Blaeu gained access to information produced by this survey and used it when preparing the Norwegian maps for his atlas. The resulting engraving was substantially more detailed than many earlier European representations of the country.

Its appearance in 1662 was significant. The treaties of Roskilde in 1658 and Copenhagen in 1660 had recently altered the boundary between Denmark-Norway and Sweden. Blaeu’s map therefore belongs to a period when the political geography of Scandinavia was being reconsidered as well as redrawn.

Norway’s Coast and Fjords

Norway’s coastline is the map’s dominant feature. Islands, channels, bays and fjords create an intricate western edge quite unlike the smoother outlines used on less detailed maps of the period.

The coast was central to Norwegian life. Mountainous terrain made travel over land difficult, while sheltered sea routes connected fishing communities, trading ports and regional centres. Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger were important points within this maritime network.

Numerous islands are named, and the engraving gives particular attention to the entrances of fjords and navigable coastal waters. Ships placed in the surrounding seas reinforce Norway’s dependence upon fishing, coastal trade and communication by water.

Mountains and the Interior

Behind the coast, Blaeu fills the interior with closely grouped pictorial mountains. These are not intended as precisely measured contours, but they successfully convey the ruggedness of the Norwegian landscape.

River valleys and passes provided the most practical routes through this mountainous country. Settlements appear in the spaces between ranges, while large areas of the interior remain comparatively empty.

That contrast between the detailed coast and the sparsely populated uplands reflects both Norway’s physical geography and the information available to seventeenth-century surveyors. Coastal districts were more accessible and better known to European navigators than the remote interior.

Norway under the Danish Crown

At the time the map was published, Norway formed part of the kingdom of Denmark-Norway. Political power was centred in Copenhagen, but Norway retained its own geography, regional identities and long-established trading connections.

Christiania, the city now known as Oslo, had been rebuilt and renamed by Christian IV following a destructive fire in 1624. Bergen remained Norway’s most important commercial centre and a major participant in the North Sea trade. Trondheim was the principal city of the north and the historic seat of the archbishopric, while Stavanger served the southwestern coastal districts.

These towns appear relatively small on the engraving, but their positions reveal the structure of Norwegian settlement: ports and regional centres separated by mountains, fjords and considerable distances.

From the Atlas Maior

The Atlas Maior was the most ambitious achievement of the Blaeu publishing house. Its eleven-volume Latin edition contained almost six hundred maps, accompanied by extensive geographical and historical descriptions.

The volumes were large, expensive and produced to impress. Maps could be supplied with carefully applied hand colouring, turning each atlas into a work of art as well as a geographical reference.

Blaeu’s Norway combines those two purposes particularly well. Its coastal information and named settlements had practical geographical value, while its decorative cartouches, heraldry, ships and colouring gave the sheet the splendour expected of one of Europe’s finest atlases.