Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
The item illustrated and described below is sold, but we have another example in stock. To view the example which is currently being offered for sale, click the "View Details" button below.
Description

Double hemisphere map of the World, accompanied by portraits of a number of the most important 16th and early 17th Century explorers, which was included in Willem J. Schouten's Journal Ofte Beschrijvinghe van der wonderlicke Reyse . . . , first published by Blaeu in 1618.

The map shows the tracks of Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten's circumnavigation (1615-1617), which included the discovery of a passage to the south of the Straits of Magellan and the discovery of Staten Island.

This example is apparently an early variant edition, not illustrated by Shirley, and would appear to be from De Bry's account of the voyage. The map is based upon the first edition of the original Le Maire/Schoten edition (tropics and Japan not named), but with the illustrations of the two ships removed and better engraved portaits.

A nice example of this scarce map.

Condition Description
Restored along right margin, just affecting printed image. Paper weakness and minor loss within the image in the armillary sphere, but only noticeable when held to the light.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu Biography

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) was a prominent Dutch geographer and publisher. Born the son of a herring merchant, Blaeu chose not fish but mathematics and astronomy for his focus. He studied with the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, with whom he honed his instrument and globe making skills. Blaeu set up shop in Amsterdam, where he sold instruments and globes, published maps, and edited the works of intellectuals like Descartes and Hugo Grotius. 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 joined his father’s business rather than practice. 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.