|
||
|
|
|
|
Joan Blaeu’s map of Gloucestershire, published in Amsterdam around 1645, is one of the more decorative and refined county maps of seventeenth-century England.
The map extends from the tidal flats of the Severn estuary and the Forest of Dean in the west to the Cotswold escarpment and the Oxfordshire border in the east. Towns, hundreds, parishes, and rivers are precisely labeled and delicately engraved.
In the upper left, a grand heraldic panel displays twelve coats of arms of the earls and leading families of Gloucestershire, each suspended from ribbon and accompanied by cherubic figures. Two shields remain blank, a conventional space for future completion or patron personalization. Royal arms of the United Kingdom and England mark the upper and right borders.
The title cartouche, positioned at lower right, features a pastoral allegory: shepherds and a shepherdess stand by a draped sheepskin title panel, flanked by sheep, a reference to the county’s long-standing associations with wool.
Joan, or Johannes, Blaeu (1596-1673) was the son of Willem Janszoon Blaeu. He inherited his father’s meticulous and striking mapmaking style and continued the Blaeu workshop until it burned in 1672. Initially, Joan trained as a lawyer, but he decided to join his father’s business rather than practice.
After his father’s death in 1638, Joan and his brother, Cornelis, took over their father’s shop and Joan took on his work as hydrographer to the Dutch East India Company. Joan brought out many important works, including Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, a world map to commemorate the Peace of Westphalia which brought news of Abel Tasman’s voyages in the Pacific to the attention of Europe. This map was used as a template for the world map set in the floor of the Amsterdam Town Hall, the Groote Burger-Zaal, in 1655.
Joan also modified and greatly expanded his father’s Atlas novus, first published in 1635. All the while, Joan was honing his own atlas. He published the Atlas maior between 1662 and 1672. It is one of the most sought-after atlases by collectors and institutions today due to the attention to the detail, quality, and beauty of the maps. He is also known for his town plans and wall maps of the continents. Joan’s productivity slammed to a halt in 1672, when a fire completely destroyed his workshop and stock. Joan died a year later and is buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.
