Arctica

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Uncoloured

Condition: Very Good

Confirmed: No

Date Acquired: 28/01/2023

Dealers ID No.: 19157

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.).nFor both the 1635 Dutch, Latin, and French precursors of the Atlas Maior, Geographia Blaviana, Joan Blaeu introduced a coordinated series of engraved title pages, each serving as a symbolic gateway to a specific geographic region. From these earlier publications, the present collection includes an early 1638 reissue of the French title page from Le Théâtre du Monde (View Record (#351)), as well as two title pages for the Spanish section: one from the 1644 French edition of Le Théâtre du Monde, ou nouvel atlas (View Record (#147)), and another from the 1658 Dutch edition of Toonneel des Aerdrycks (View Record (#318)).nThe collection also includes title pages from the Atlas Maior, Geographia Blaviana: the general title page (View Record (#157)), along with allegorical frontispieces for the Arctic (View Record (#284)), Europe (View Record (#151)), Africa (View Record (#149)), and America (View Record (#150)). A distinct title page for Asia (View Record (#152)) was adapted from the earlier Atlas Sinensis of 1655. In addition, the collection features View Record (#148), which introduces the section on Tycho Brahes astronomical instruments.nThe title page for Arctica introduces Blaeus volume on the Arctic regions. At its centre is a male figure, armed with a bow and arrow, seated atop a rock on a curious inflated bag that leaks aira visual symbol of escaping wind or force. This central image is surrounded by vivid and often unsettling details: on the icy shore stands a semi-naked old woman gnawing a bone, beside two hunters, one drawing a bow. In the foreground, a polar bear and a walrus emerge from the sea, anchoring the scene in the natural world of the polar regions.nThe imagery draws on Homeric mythology, specifically Book 10 of The Odyssey. After leaving the land of the Cyclops, Odysseus visits Aeolus, god of the winds, who provides him with a bag containing all winds but the favourable westerly. When Odysseuss crew, suspecting treasure, opens the bag prematurely, the released winds drive the ship off course. The leaking bag in Blaeus illustration thus references the harsh, chaotic gales of the polar north, and the mythic perils of navigation in uncharted waters.nThe rock on which the figure sits may further allude to the magnetic black rocka legendary island once believed to mark the magnetic pole. This concept traces back to the lost 14th-century account Inventio Fortunata, which described the North Pole as a mountainous black rock surrounded by whirlpools. The motif remained embedded in Renaissance geography and persisted in many early Arctic maps.nAccording to Hollstein, the engraving is likely the work of Cornelis van Dalen, a Dutch artist known for his precise and dramatic style. This composition, unique among Blaeus title pages, blends mythological symbolism, cartographic lore, and naturalistic observation to convey both the mystery and danger of the Arctica region at the edge of European knowledge and imagination.

Engraver: Dalen, Cornelis van (1637-1664)

First published: Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana… Vol. 1, Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1662

Image Size (cm): 30×47

Mapmaker: Blaeu, Joan (1596-1673)

Price: 10000

Primary Category: Titlepage

Purchase Reference: Ledger

Rarity: R1 Extremely rare – occasionally seen on the market

References: Hollstein Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700 (XL, p. 204)

Sheet size (cm): 32.3×52.7

Technique: Copper Engraving

This state: First

Website: https://www.helmink.com/antique-map/19157/joan-blaeu-map-of-the-alleg…