Blaeu's Manual of Terrestrial and Celestial Globes
Latin edition of Willem Blaeu's Tweevoudigh onderwiis van de hemelsche en aerdsche globen, a manual of cosmography with instructions on the use of terrestrial and celestial globes made by Blaeu. Rendered into Latin from the original Dutch by mathematician and astronomer Martinus Hortensius (1605-1639).
Willem Janszoon Blaeu, renowned as the greatest globe-maker of his time, created the Institutio astronomica as a manual for customers of his celestial and terrestrial globes—including the largest ever made at the time. A student of Tycho Brahe and a devoted astronomer, Blaeu explains in detail the components of a globe, followed by nearly 150 exercises. These range from determining the time in different regions and calculating day length in Amsterdam, to locating towns by coordinates or navigating with rhumb lines. Exercises on the celestial sphere explore the rising of constellations. The book is divided into two parts: the first follows the outdated Ptolemaic system for its pedagogical simplicity; the second transitions to the Copernican model, mirroring Galileo’s Dialogo. Blaeu's globes were luxury items prized for their accuracy and elegance, reflecting the latest discoveries made by Dutch explorers with whom Blaeu maintained close contact.
The first part of the book deals with the features of celestial and terrestrial globes and their use in the Ptolemaic sense, and the second part concerns planetariums and telluriums with a stationary sun and a moving Earth, without indicating when such instruments were first made - Zinner.
First published in Dutch in 1620, this 1655 edition is the sixth Latin edition, issued in Amsterdam during the height of the Dutch Golden Age, when Blaeu’s globes were renowned across Europe for their scientific precision and artistic quality.
Part 1, chapt. IV, includes references to Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, and Magellanica plus scattered refs to Lima, Peru occur elsewhere in volume.
A significant work of early modern globes, astronomy and instrument making by a major figure in the history of cartography.
Rarity
Scarce in the market. Only 4 sold examples noted in RBH in the last 25 years.
Provenance
From the collection of Ted Benttinen, with his bookplate laid in.
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.