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Nice example of Blaeu's map of Switzerland, which includes a credit to Gerard Mercator in the lower left part of the map.
Basel is at the top of the map and the Italian Alps with Lakes Maggiore Como, etc. at the bottom of the map, Lake Geneva on the left.
This is a finely detailed map, filled with the numerous place names of Switzerland: St Moritz, St. Gall, etc., etc. On the map Blaeu acknowledges the Mercator map of Switzerland as the model for this map (Describebat Gerard' Mercator). Two "typical" Swiss citizens are shown at the lower right besides the mileage scale.
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.
![(First state!) [ Upper Rhine River Valley -- Strasbourg to Basle ] Alsatia et Brisgoia II Rheni Et VII Nova Tabula](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/94641.jpg)
![[Switzerland] Charte de la Suisse, de la Rhetie, ou des Grisons, de la Valtelin, du Valay, & autres Seigneuries Voisines Exactement dressee sur les Lieux par Gaspr Baudouin Ingenieur Militaire & Capitaine de l'artillerie du Roy . . . en L'Estat de Millan](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/91530.jpg)
