BLAEU, William Janszoon (1571-1638) and BLAEU, Johannes (1596-1673). Ducatus Holsatiae Nova Tabula. Amsterdam: Willem and Johannes Bleau, 1644.

BLAEU, William Janszoon (1571-1638) and BLAEU, Johannes (1596-1673). Ducatus Holsatiae Nova Tabula. Amsterdam: Willem and Johannes Bleau, 1644.

Single sheet (23 ⅜ x 19 ¾ inches, full margins with platemark). Fine engraved map with original hand color of Holstein in Germany, with two insets, decorated with two compass roses and a ship (lightly toned with central vertical crease, with original mounting guard on verso).

From Blaeu’s atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas novus, this detailed map of the German province of Holstein includes insets of Dagebüll on the west coast, and Stapelholmer, which appears to fall north of Rendsberg. The west coast is drawn with care towards the dangerous mudflats and sandbars of the Wadden Sea, illustrated with a small vessel following a marked passage to the Elbe River.

Blaeu was a pupil of the great Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, from whom he learned a very scientific approach to the field of cartography, which served to enhance his reputation. His early work concentrated on globe making, but by the early seventeenth century he began producing separately issued maps. Blaeu founded his publishing firm in 1596, and with the collaboration of his sons, Cornelius (1616-1648) and Joan (1596-1673), it was the most productive cartographic establishment in the Netherlands until it was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1672. Appointed mapmaker to the Dutch East India Company in 1633-1634, Blaeu had access to fresh geographical information that was not available to any of his contemporaries. He published his first world atlas, the Atlantis Appendix, with 60 maps in 1630, and continued to produce new maps at such a rate that by 1634, he abandoned the single volume format and announced his intention to publish a new world atlas, entitled the Theatrum, which eventually grew into the monumental 11-volume Atlas Maior, completed by his son Joan in 1662. (Van der Krogt 2).

For more information about this map, or a warm welcome to see it and other books in our library at 72nd Street, NYC, please contact Tara Mishkovsky, M.A. in the Rare Book Department. Bookseller Inventory # 72TM023