Code: 54827
Date: 1645
Copper engraving with original hand colouring. French text on verso. Royal Coats of Arms at the top left right, coats of arms of the noble families of the the county (ten including two blank shields) and a mileage chart cartouche surrounded by putti. Overall sheet size: 58.8cms x 50.6cms; image size: 494mm x 384mm. Odd mark to the very large margins; remnants of tape on verso margin edges see image 2
"As with all productions of the firm of Blaeu, the engraving and layout are all of the highest standard." Rodney Shirley.
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.
