Referring to the Zee Atlas, Koeman wrote: "This chartbook by Arnold Colom ... is one of the most important atlases in the well known category of Dutch sea-atlases. It is not the first of the group: Joannes Janssonius' Atlas Maritimus (1650), which constitutes volume 5 of the Novus Atlas opens the series ... Contrary to the rather unhomogenous set of charts by Janssonius, Arnold Colom assembled a coherent group of 15 charts, later increased to 17 plus a world map. ... Arnold Colom's three charts of the oceans are on the same scale (1:14mill.) as Portuguese and Spanish charts of that time. It marked the first time that such charts were published as atlas sheets ..." (Atlantes Neerlandici, IV, p.115). The Zee-Atlas is one of the largest format sea-atlases published in Amsterdam of the period, and also one of the scarcest. This may reflect the dominance that publishers like Johannes Janssonius enjoyed, or perhaps that the format was simply too large for convenient use. That the atlas, and his other cartographic ventures, were not successful would seem to be confirmed also by the fact that Colom fell heavily in arrears with his rent. In a notarial act of 1663, Colom gave his landlord, another prominent cartographic publisher Nicolaas Visscher (II), security for the debt, which included the eighteen printing plates for the 'Zee-Atlas.' It would appear that Colom died, in 1668, without redeeming the plates, for no later editions by him are known. [Sources: Mapforum]
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Further Biographical Data1624-1668. Beerdigt am 24.10.1668