Joan Blaeu's Map of the World

Joan Blaeu:
Nova et Accuratissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula. Auctore Ioanne Blaeu.
Amsterdam, c1662.
Slight toning overall, with stronger browning on verso only. Fine original color. 16 x 21 inches. Good margins. $24,000.

This is by far the rarer, the better-engraved, and geographically more significant of the two world maps associated with the Blaeu atlas. The earlier one, the venerated world map of the elder Blaeu, Willem, that was included in Volume I of the Blaeu atlas, remained unchanged for most of the years the atlas was being published. That earlier map, basically a 1606 work updated to include the Le Maire Strait, was geographically dated by the mid-century.

As a result, Joan Blaeu created this new world for the Atlas Maior of 1662. It is constructed in double-hemispheres and ultimately derives from Joan's wall map of 1648, though with some improvements. Around the hemispheres are representations of the four seasons and of celestial figures. Koeman (Atlantes Neerlandici) speculates that the commercial threat posed by the fine atlas of Johannes Janssonius pushed Blaeu to the extraordinary high level of refinement he achieved, to "do his very best to outclass his rival."

It is geographically more significant because its information was more current during the period it was being produced, coming on the heels of the earlier work that was modified for inclusion in the atlas.

This map is fairly rare because of the very few editions published before the fire, in 1672, which shut down the Blaeu firm. Although the plate appears to have survived the fire, its subsequent use was limited to a few editions of the Van Keulen atlas.

In its own day, the atlas was considered quite a luxury item, and befitted the gift to royalty and heros. It was, for example, presented to the Sultan of Turkey in 1668, to Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in gratitude for his battle against England, and to Emperor Leopold II. Surviving records from the Blaeu firm and from other contemporary catalogues demonstrate that the atlas was also enormously expensive.

The present example of Joan Blaeu's world map is a fine one, in full original color.