Engraving of Todos os Santos Bay from 1671, Brazil

Montanus’s work was perhaps the greatest illustrated book on the New World produced in the 17th century.

It contained over a hundred beautifully engraved plates, views and maps of North and South America.

The plates vividly depicted forts, festivals, occupations, Dutch fleets, battles, religious rites and native customs.

This important work was translated into German by Olivier Dapper and into English by John Ogilby.

Several of the plates were later acquired by Pierre Vander Aa.

This is a superb view of Todos os Santos Bay with Salvador da Bahia in the background.

The engraving shows the region when the Dutch were trying to gain control of the Portuguese colonies in Brazil and their lucrative sugar trade.

In 1624, the Dutch captured and sacked Salvador da Bahia and held it, along with other ports in the north-east, until it was recaptured by a Spanish-Portuguese fleet.

The city then played a strategic role in the Portuguese-Brazilian resistance against the Dutch in the 1630s.

This view is taken from the work of Frans Post. His works are among the earliest European paintings of Brazil and were eagerly reproduced in print by Dutch engravers. “Sinus Omnium Sanctoru”, Montanus, Arnoldus

Engraving of All Saints Bay from 1671 – Historical Maps of Brazil