Code: 56187
Date: 1645
Copper engraving with fine original hand colouring. Overall size : 58.6cms.x 49.3cms. Image size : 505mm.x 410mm. French text to verso. pp 267/268Centre fold as published. Scale cartouche decorated with a shepherd , his sheep and a farmer's wife with grain and fruit. The cartouche at left centre which has not been filled in, may have been for a dedication above it are the arms of Stafford.
"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.
