India Orientalis cum Adjacentibus Insulis Nova Delinineatione ob Oculos Posita.

Large scale c.18th (1742) hand coloured map of the Australia and South East Asia, with an elaborate title cartouche showing the riches to be found at lower left.

The decorations include: a robed religious figure preaching to a group of pious natives; Neptune, the Roman God of the Sea holding his trident and pointing to a group of natives who are offering the sea’s bounties to a seated figure of Asia; behind Neptune are three Galleons indicating the dominant presence of the European naval powers in the Indies.

Australia is shown according to Tasman’s second voyage in 1644 and includes historic Dutch names on the northern coasts.

The dating of this chart is often incorrectly given as 1730. On 31 July 1741, however, Seutter was granted the exclusive printing privilege for the publication of his own charts and maps, after which he adopted the following inscription: ‘Cum Gratia et Privilegio Sacri Romani Imperii Vicariatus in partibus Rheni, Sueviæ et Juris Franconici’, which is engraved above the scale of distances at lower right.

From: Seutter, Atlas Novus.