(Cardiganshire) Ceretica sive Cardiganensis by Johannes Blaeu

(Cardiganshire) Ceretica sive Cardiganensis by Johannes Blaeu

Code: 53750

£175.00 Approx $222.93, €204.68
 

Date: 1664-1665

Long title:Ceretica sive Cardiganensis comitatus; Anglis Cardigan Shire.  Copper engraving with original  hand colouring. Overall size : 65.1cms x 52.8cms ; Image size : 495mm x 380mm. Durch text verso pp286-285.  Title in highly decorative cartouche with beaver , fish like creatures and hunter .  Royal coat of arms; Prince of Wales feathers; Knights of the Garter surmounted by crown with three sailing ships; cartouche. Scale of distance in decorative cartouche. Compass rose. Tiny separation at extreme top of the centrefold, with no loss else excellent condition.

Translation : ' The Normans had barely completed their domination of England, when they attacked the coasts with their fleet; it proved a successful tactic.  Gradually under the reign of William Rufus they wrested the coastal areas from Welsh control.  They gave most of these to Cadugan ap Blethin, who was a Briton himself, a very prudent man who had a considerable following in Wales.  The English considered him their friend'.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) was a prominent Dutch geographer and publisher. The son of a herring merchant, Blaeu studied mathematics and astronomy . He studied instrument and globe making with the  Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Blaeu set up shop in Amsterdam, where he sold instruments and globes, published maps. In 1635, he released his atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, Atlas novus.

Willem died in 1638. He had two sons, Cornelis (1610-1648) and Joan (1596-1673). Joan trained as a lawyer, but then joined his father’s business. After his father’s death, the brothers took over their father’s shop and Joan took on his work as hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company. Later in life, Joan would modify and greatly expand his father’s Atlas Novus, eventually releasing his masterpiece, the Atlas Maior, between 1662 and 1672.