Another map of Delft documenting the damage caused by the fire in 1536. It is similar enough to the other known post-fire map that one clearly derived from the other. This map shows more devastation. Also, it has no bridge at the Waterslootse Poort (top) or the Koepoort (bottom). It has a developed bulwark in the top right corner along with a fifth windmill.

1560

In 1729, Boitet published an updated and expanded version of Bleyswijk's Beschrijving der Stadt Delft from 1667. Boitet's version was illustrated with most of the side panels from Bleyswijk's Kaart Figuratief from 1678. In addition, it has a two-page map labeled "Afbeelding van Delft na een afteekening van den jare 1560 gemaakt" (Picture of Delft made after a drawing of 1560). This is the map of 1560 Boitet was referring to.

To the extent that it is accurate, it shows how much of the city had been rebuilt after the fire in 1536.

The left half shows the southern part of the city. It is derived from the post-fire maps that show the Rotterdamse Poort and Oostpoort spanning the singel. On the top, it has no bridge at the Waterslootse Poort. On the bottom, no bridge at the Koepoort.

1567

A view of Delft published first in Guicciardini's Description of the Low Countries in 1567. It is a close copy of the earlier map of 1560.

1580

This map, in several versions, has been attributed to several people between the late 1500's and the mid-1600's. The earliest attribution is to Lodovico Guicciardini (1521–1589), which would mean that it was made somewhere around 1580. A copperplate version was engraved by Pieter van den Keere (Petrus Kaerius, 1571 - c 1646).

This particular version is from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, a six-volume city atlas with 546 maps and illustrations published by Frans Hogenberg and Georg Braun in Cologne between 1572 and 1617.

While it is clearly based on the earlier maps with what look like single gates at either end of the Oude Delft gracht, this is the first map with the Schoolpoort and bridge and with a bridge (but no rampart yet) for the Waterslootse Poort. Funereal-looking boats seem to be leaving the Duyvel's Gat.

1615

Oil on panel by Hendrik Cornelis Vroom (1562–1640). It hangs in the Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft.

The view is one that no one ever saw until the invention of airplanes. The Buitenwatersloot was a major route for goods and people and led to Delft's most impressive and fortified gate, the Watersloot Poort. On the far right is the newly dug Kolk, the triangular-shaped harbor in front of the Schiedamse Poort. The Schie went off in that direction, south, toward Rotterdam, Delftshaven, and Schiedam.

Some of Leeuwenhoek's relatives owned property farther along the Buitenwatersloot, just out of the painting's frame, probably as gardens.

1648

Delft in border print from Leonis Hollandiae by Visscher, published in 1648

Delft Batavorum from Blaeu's Toonneel der Steden, edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu, 1652. It was published in Amsterdam in just three years after the peace of Munster and the Spanish acknowledgement of the Dutch Republic.

The map, according to the conventions of the time, is laid out for the most balanced design. North is toward the top left corner, not straight up.

The canal off the left, the Vliet, connects Delft to Leiden, twelve miles north. Leeuwenhoek may well have traveled that canal to go to school in Warmond and to his apprenticeship in Amsterdam.

The canal off the right, the Delftse Schie, connects Delft eight miles to Delftshaven, the harbor on the Maas River, and thus out to the North Sea.

Note that Delft had six gates to pass over the outer moat, the singel, in Delft also referred to as the vest. Only one gate remains, the Oostpoort in the top right corner.

Detail of right (south) side of Blaeu's Delfi Batavorum.

A view of the devastation caused by the gunpowder explosion in October 1654 painted by Daniel Vosmaer, a Delft native like van der Poel.

1660

The point of view of this painting is the west bank of the Schie looking north over the Stadskolk at the Schiedam Gate in the middle and the Rotterdam Gate on the right.

1678

The Kaart Figuratief was paid for by the city of Delft and made by a team supervised by Dirck Everts van Bleyswijck. It was first printed from (still available) copper plates in 1678 and distributed throughout the Netherlands and the world by the city, trying to promote itself after the disaster year of 1672.

It prominently features the city's gateway to the world, Delfshaven, and an array of impressive public buildings. It was often re-published and adapted and the side views were used in the second edition of Bleyswijck's Beschryvinge der Stadt Delft as well as the expanded version by Boitet in 1729.

Among others, Johannes Verkolje drew the church buildings and the broad view of the city across the top. Jacob Spoors, surveyor, led the group that provided measurements to update and correct Blaeu's map. Johannes de Ram did the actual engraving of the map itself.

Learn more about the buildings in the side views at Essential Vermeer's Dirck Van Bleyswyck's Kaart Figuratief.

A grey-scale print of the first edition of this map is in the Delft city archives.

The northwest (bottom left) quadrant of Bleyswick's Kaart Figuratief, first published in 1678.

The southwest (bottom right) quadrant of Bleyswick's Kaart Figuratief, first published in 1678.

1712

This large map shows Delfland, which was the responsibility of the Hoogheemraadschap van Delfland, the folks who managed the water system. Nicolaas Samuels Kruikius (or Cruquius, 1678-1754) with the help of his surveyor brother Jacob, finished it in 1712. Its accuracy compares well to aerial photographs showing the same polders still divided by the same sloots today.