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Key to Castello Plan . Description of Plates C.PL.82e. KEY TO CASTELLO PLAN . DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 8~-82-e C. PLATE 82 AFBEELDINGE VAN DE STADT AMSTERDAM IN NIEUW NEEDERLANDT (The Castello Plan) Manuscript in pen and ink and 25 x 18§1l Date depicted: Summer of water- colours on paper, 1660. mounted on canvas. Date of drawing: Probably 1665-70. Artist: Copied by an unknown draughtsman from an original drawing by Jacques Cortelyou. Owner: The Italian Government; preserved in the Villa Castello, near Florence, Italy. The following French inscription (partly torn away) in the right-hand lower margin of the view is evidently in a later hand. It is the only suggestion of a possible provenance other than that suggested in the Introduction: Vue dIe Nieu] Amste[rdam au] Canada [aujour d'hui] Appel [Ii New] Yorck A similar but less complete inscription on the Castello copy of the Manatus Map is preceded by the number 74. Similar inscriptions are found on many of the other drawings in this series. Two water-marks are vaguely discernible: the first, just to the left of the Fort, a crowned shield and fleur-de-lis; the second, outside of the wall near the third bastion, the monogram I HS. Reproduced and described here for the first time. A careful study of the Castello Plan, in comparison with the Nicasius de Sille List [1], which is dated July 10, 1660, has led to the conclusion that most of the data embodied in the Plan were compiled before this List was made, but that the actual draughting was not completed until some time afterward; or, in other words, that the Castello Plan is based upon the Cortelyou Survey ordered on June 7, 1660, and completed just in time to be despatched in the ship which carried Stuyvesant's well-known letter of October 6th of that year, addressed to the directors in Amsterdam, and containing the words: "After ['1 "List of the survey (or census) of Houses on the 10 July 1(60: within this town Amsterdam in N: Neder­ iant," by Nicasius De Sille. Original manuscript in N. Y. Public Lihrary, reproduced in full in this volume. 210 THE ICONOGRAPHY OF MANHATTAN ISLAND closing our letter the Burgomasters have shown us the plan of this city, which we did not think would be ready before the sailing of this ship."-N. Y. Col. Docs., XIV: 486. This third survey of Cortelyou's was doubtless but an elaboration of his earlier ones, of 1657 and 1658 (see Cartography, p. 117 and Chronology), which, in turn, were probably based on that made by Captain de Koningh, under an order of November 10, 1655 (Rec. N. Am., I: 393-4), and confirmed by an ordinance passed February 25, 1656.-Laws (j Ord., N. Neth., 219-20. By the 1656 survey, which was the earliest plan of the city, the streets, as the ordinance recites, had been" set off and laid out with stakes." There were at that time, according to O'Callaghan, but 120 houses within the city (Hist. of N. Neth., II: 540), whereas, on the Castello Plan, of four years later, about 300 are shown; and on the De Sille List of the same year there are 307 within the same area. Probably, the List was intended to supplement the Plan, and doubtless it constituted a complete and accurate census of the houses in New Amsterdam at the time. A com­ parison of the Plan and the List is interesting and convincing. For instance, item one of the List enumerates fifty-one houses on the Heere Straet; the Plan shows but forty­ seven. Item nine speaks of seventeen houses on the Singel; there are but sixteen on the Plan. Item fourteen lists fourteen houses on the Bevers Gracht; the Plan shows thirteen. Item fifteen enumerates ten houses on the Marcktvelt; there are nine on the Plan. The twenty-eighth item states that there were four houses at "Belle Videre where Do Drijsij Houses stand"; plainly, there are but three on the Plan. These are not the only discrepancies noted. In general, however, the List and the Plan agree. In only one instance are fewer buildings listed than are shown on the Plan. The fourth item gives twenty-four houses on the" Prince Gracht where the fiscal's house stands." De Sille must have known the number of houses on his own street, yet the Plan plainly shows twenty-eight structures. It has been suggested that Domine Drisius finished the four small houses on the east side of the Prince Gracht (numbered I, I, I, I, on Block K) between July and October of 1660, and that the draughtsman then added them to the Plan. From the facts mentioned above, it is evident that when, on June 7, 1660, Cortelyou was directed by the provincial government to survey and prepare a new plan of the lots within the city of New Amsterdam (Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 213), a great part of the pre­ liminary work had already been done. Otherwise, it is entirely improbable that the elaborate birds-eye view could have been finished and forwarded to Holland with the letter of October 6th. It will be remembered that, on December 24th, the directors wrote, in reply to this letter: We have been pleased to receive the map of the city of New Amsterdam: we noticed, that according to our opinion too great spaces are as yet without buildings, as for instance between Smee Street and Princes Crackt or between Prince Street and Tuyn Street, also between Heeren Street and Bevers Crac"t, where the houses apparently are surrounded by excessively large lots and gardens; perhaps with the intention of cutting streets through them, when the population increases, although if standing closer together, a defense might be easier. We leave this to your consideration and care.-N. Y. Col. Docs., XIV: 489. These remarks of the directors make it evident that on the original survey the streets were named. On the Castello Plan the names are omitted, perhaps because of a reduc­ tion in size and simplification of the drawing from the survey, which was probably much larger, and more careful and detailed in execution. Numerous small errors on the Castello Plan show either that our drawing was care­ lessly copied from the original, or possibly that the latter was a rather free rendering of DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 2II the survey of 1660, to which it perhaps bore the same relation as Vande Water's draw­ ing did to that of 1661. If it were not for the close correspondence between the Castello Plan and the De Sille List, and for the further fact that on the latter more buildings appear than on the for­ mer, we should be tempted to believe that the Plan was copied rather from Van der Water's elaborate rendering of Cortelyou's final survey, finished in the autumn of 1661 (Min. of Orph. Court, II: 124, 129); but, under the existing circumstances, this seems entirely unlikely. A careful comparison of the Castello Plan with the inset plan on the Nicolls Survey is most interesting, and establishes the fact that the latter is much more accurate in detail than has been generally supposed. For instance, there are about sixty more buildings on the Nicolls Plan than on the Castello, which is about the growth that we should expect in five years. It will also be noticed that the five most important build­ ings shown on the Castello Plan are drawn in detail on the Nicolls Plan, viz.: The Stadt Huys, Stuyvesant's house, the Cregier house, Nicasius de Sille's house, and Steenwyck's house. The following extracts, taken from the Chronology, throw some additional light on the architecture. construction, and materials employed in New Amsterdam at the period of the Plan: 1649, J an. ~~, Ordinance: "as the houses here in New Amsterdam are for the most part built of Wood and thatched with Reed, besid~s which the Chimneys of some of the houses are of wood." This ordinance provided that "henceforward no Chimneys shall be built of wood or [wood and] plaister in any houses between the Fort and the Fresh Water" (i. e., within the town's limits).-Laws C:f Ord., N. Neth., SZ-3. 1656, January 18, Ordinance: "from now henceforth no Houses shall be covered with Straw or Reed, nor any more Chimneys be constructed of Clapboards or Wood."-Ibid., 206-S. 1657, December 15, Ordinance: "all Thatched roofs and Wooden chimneys, Hay-ricks and Hay-stacks within this City" are to "be broken up and removed" within four months after the publication of this ordinance, which also states that: "for want of stone, many Wooden Houses are built within this City, the one adjoining the other." This was the time when firebuckets were provided.-Ibid., 322, If. An analysis of the Castello Plan would be incomplete without a brief account of Jacques Cortelyou, its author. Fortunately, there has been preserved a clear picture of the man, his character, and acquirements, for which we are indebted to one of the travelling Laba­ dist fathers, Jasper Danckaerts, whose observations are full of shrewdness and penetra­ tion. He and his companion met Cortelyou at his home on Long Island, in the autumn of 1679. He records: Jacques is a man advanced in years. He was born in Utrecht, but of French parents, as we could readily discover from all his actions, looks and language. He had studied philosophy in his youth, and spoke Latin and good French. He was a mathematician and sworn land-surveyor.
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