Acquired From: Antique Print & Map Room
Colouring: Coloured
Condition: Very Good
Confirmed: Yes
Date Acquired: 3/8/2016
Dealers ID No.: FP 1648 BLAE 001
Description: Following the death of Willem Blaeu in 1638, his son Joan Blaeu expanded and refined the familys atlas project, culminating in the monumental Atlas Maior. The origins of this enterprise, however, extend back several decades. In 1599, after briefly studying with the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Willem Janszoon Blaeu settled in Amsterdam, where he established himself as a maker of globes, astronomical instruments, wall maps, and pilot books. nIn 1629, following the death of Jodocus Hondius Jr., Blaeu acquired thirty-seven copperplates from the Hondius family. The following year, working with his eldest son Joan, he published the Atlantis Appendix, a single-volume world atlas comprising sixty maps, many derived from the Hondius plates. This was followed in 1631 by Appendix Theatri A. Ortelii et Atlantis G. Mercatoris, further expanding Blaeu's cartographic output.nIn 1634, Blaeu announced a more ambitious international edition of his atlas. That same year, a hastily assembled German-language version appeared under the title Novus Atlas das ist Abbildung und Beschreibung von allen Ländern des Erdreichs, with several maps left incomplete (View Record (#76)). A more formal and complete edition followed in 1635, issued simultaneously in Dutch (Toonneel des Aerdrycks, ofte Nieuwe Atlas), Latin (Novus Atlas), and French (Le Théâtre du Monde). These multilingual volumes were designed for a broad European readership. Their title pages were later imitated by Blaeus principal rival Johannes Janssonius in his own Le Théâtre du Monde ou nouvel atlas (1639, 1643; #303 and View Record (#320)).nOver the next two decades, Joan Blaeu expanded the atlas with volumes dedicated to Italy and Greece (1640), England and Wales (1645), Scotland and Ireland (1654), and China (Atlas Sinensis, 1655). The project reached its peak with the publication of the Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana, first issued in Latin (1662, 11 vols.), and subsequently translated into Dutch (Grooten Atlas, oft Werelt-Beschrijvinge, 1664, 9 vols.), French (Le Grand Atlas, ou Cosmographie Blaviane, 1667, 12 vols.), and Spanish (Atlas Mayor, o Geographia Blaviana, 1672, 10 vols.).nThis title page appears in Volume Two (the Spanish section) of the 1644 French edition Le Théâtre du Monde, ou nouvel atlas. A counterpart to the version later used in the 1658 Dutch edition (View Record (#318)), this design features a grand architectural façade, framed by two Corinthian columns and surmounted by the royal coat of arms of Spain. The heraldic shield is quartered to represent the composite crowns and kingdoms of the Spanish EmpireCastile, León, Aragon, and otherssymbolising the vastness of Spain's global dominion in the seventeenth century. Flanking the columns in elaborately framed niches are personifications of the four continents, each rendered with attributes reflective of early modern European perceptions:n''Europe'', crowned and regally dressed, holds a sceptre and a cornucopia symbolising abundance and political authority.n''Asia ''carries a smoking censer and a flowering branch, with a phoenix at her feet, evoking mystery, spirituality, and renewal.n''Africa'', brown-skinned and minimally clothed in a draped cloth, stands beside an elephant and shelters under a parasol, reflecting exoticism and tropical heat as viewed from the European perspective.n''America'', adorned with a feathered headdress, grips a weaponpossibly a polearm or ceremonial staffand is accompanied by a large puma at her feet, suggesting both ferocity and the untamed character assigned to the New World.nAbove them, carved into the architectural entablature, is the Latin motto: Non unus sufficit orbisOne world does not suffice. This phrase is widely known through its imperial associations with Philip II of Spain, but its earlier documented use was by the Portuguese Jesuit Emmanuel Nóbrega, who inscribed it on the vessel that carried him to Brazil. In this context, the motto embodies imperial ambition, global missionary zeal, and the ideological reach of European powers across multiple continents.
First published: Le Théâtre du Monde, ou nouvel atlas… Vol. 2, Part 2. Amsterdam: Willem and Joan Blaeu, 1635
Image Size (cm): 40.3 x 23.8
Mapmaker: Blaeu, Joan (1596-1673)
Price: A681.80 plus gst
Primary Category: Titlepage
Purchase Reference: Inv. 3579
References: Van der Krogt, P.: Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, 2:22B
Technique: Copper Engraving
This state: 1644, Fourth
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