Radnoria Comitatus by Johannes Blaeu

Code: 54214

Date: 1645-1648

Copper engraving with original hand colouring.   Decorative title cartouche with rustic figure and animals indicating the chief industry of the county ; surveyors above the scale of miles. Armorials. Scale of distance at bottom right. French text on verso. Good margins. Overall size  : 58.6cms.x 50.2cms.  Image size : 498mm.x 382mm. Fine condition (slight show through on verso of the green hand colouring which confirms original hand colouring ).

"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.