A Map of Persia From the Golden Age of Dutch Cartography
Fine hand-colored example of Willem Janszoon Blaeu's map of Kingdom of Persia.
The map extends from the Eastern Mediterranean to Tacalistan and the Indus River and the Dalanguer Mountains and the Cabul Region, with the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf in the South and Caspian and Tartaria in the North.
A very detailed and highly decorative map, with dedication cartouche, decorative title cartouche, and sailing ships.
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.