Der Hollaendisch-Ostindianischen Compagnie Weltber�hmte Haupt-Handels und Niederlags-Stadt Batavia, in Asien auf dem grossen Eyland Iava in dem K�nigreich Iacatra Nord-Westlich gelegen, nach ihrem Grund-Ris und Prospect mit Erl�uterung einiger ihrer beson

Superb plan of Batavia with an inset panorama at the bottom, richly decorated with birds, animals and portraits of Javanese. The roadstead is shown with numerous ships and outside the city walls, close to the shore and in clear view of incoming ships is a gibbet with two hanging figures. The inset text at top gives a history of the city and to the left is an extensive key. Batavia was named in 1619 after the Batavi, an ancient Germanic tribe that lived in what is now the present-day Netherlands. The city officially became the administrative centre of trade of the VOC ten years later, under the authority of the Governor-General and the East Indies Council. Its coat of arms, seen in this map at the top of the lower panorama, was adopted in 1620, consisting of a lion on it&#8217s hind legs and a sword pointing through a laurel wreath. Following a number of sieges of the city by the forces of Sultanate Agung, king of the Mataram Sultanate, in 1628-9, the VOC decided that Batavia needed stronger defences and commissioned Simon Stevin, a Flemish military engineer, to design a walled city with canals like the typical Dutch ones of the time. This required significant changes to the physical landscape, including the straightening of the Ciliwung River that flowed out to sea. Later, the city walls were further extended to the west to completely enclose the city. Only the Dutch, Chinese and Mardijkers (descendants of Indian and Portuguese freed slaves) were permitted to live within the city walls. At the end of the seventeenth century, Batavia was the most spectacular &#8216Europena&#8217 city in Southeast Asia. In 1685, one visitor wrote that Batavia &#8216is like all Dutch towns: white houses, all streets between two canals, handsome trees, well-paved paths for the gentry, the middle of the roads well sanded&#8217. It had also become the centre of the VOC&#8217s cartographic activities in the East Indies and supplied the relevant charts, navigational equipment and supplies required for ships to sail from Batavia to the Netherlands. Ten years after the issue of this map, one of the most significant events in the city&#8217s history occurred. Fuelled by racial tensions and a severe drop in the sugar price, over 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred within the city walls. After Johann Baptist Homann&#8217s death, the company was continued by his son, Christoph, (1703-30) and other heirs under the name Homann Erben (Homann&#8217s Heirs). References: Schilder (K) p.109, Suarez p.221.