Code: 56189
Date: 1645-8
Fine copper engraving with original hand colouring. Latin text edition. Pp 123/124 verso. Overall size: 64.3cms x 55.3cms. Image size: 500mm x 417mm. 8 coats of arms and one blank shield. Mill. Angl., 4 (=1.5 in). The title is set within a decorative cartouche to one corner, which displays the produce of the county, fish, fruit, livestock etc. The Royal Standard is set in the corner opposite the cartouche. A fleet of galleons are located in the Solent. Very good condition apart from some marks in the huge margins and two small edge tears right and left; on the verso there is a waterstaining tidemark which is only visible on the front when you know that it is there and is not obtrusive or offensive.
"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.
