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Striking map of the area around Ghent, including a decorative birdseye view of of Graven Castle,
This map appeared only in the very late editions of Blaeu's Atlas Maior. The map includes 2 coats of arms, 2 cartouches and an interesting scale of miles, held by a costumed figure. The details of the castle view are also quite striking.
This is the first example of the map which we have evered offered and our research suggests that it rarely appears on the market.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu, patriarch of the Blaeu cartographic dynasty, 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. Cornelis died in 1648, leaving his brother to carry on the workshop alone. Later in life, Joan would modify and greatly expand his father’s Atlas novus, eventually releasing his own masterpiece, the Atlas maior, between 1662 and 1672. The Blaeu workshop burned in 1672 and Joan died a year later.