Europa

Acquired From: Leen Helmink

Colouring: Coloured

Condition: Good

Confirmed: Yes

Date Acquired: 14/04/2015

Dealers ID No.: 18842

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.nThis title page of Europa adapts the myth of Europa and the bull, the ancient Greek myth of the abduction of Europa by Zeus. While numerous versions of the myth circulated in antiquity, it was the second-century Greek bucolic poet Moschus (fl. 150 BCE) who first cast the myth in symbolic terms, linking Europa with the continent that would bear her name. In the myth, Zeus transforms himself into a tame white bull to seduce Europa, a Phoenician princess, and carries her across the sea to Crete. Over the centuries, this myth was adapted to suit a range of political, religious, and cultural agendas, particularly during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, when Europa became a personification of the continents supposed order, civilisation, and dominion over the known world.nBy the seventeenth century, Europa was commonly represented in allegorical imagery as a regal, richly adorned woman, either riding or accompanied by a bull, and often bearing a crown (symbolising imperial authority) and a cornucopia (denoting abundance and prosperity). Blaeus title page conforms to this iconographic tradition. The scene blends myth with allegory, serving both as a decorative element and as a visual assertion of Europe's symbolic primacy within the Atlas Maior's worldview.nThough unsigned, the engraving has been attributed by Rodney Shirley to the Amsterdam-based engraver Joannes de Visscher, known for his refined line work and allegorical compositions. The overall effect is one of theatrical grandeuran appropriate prelude to the geographic detail and political pride contained in the volume it introduces.

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

Image Size (cm): 44.5×30

Mapmaker: Blaeu, Joan (1596-1673)

Price: 2,500

Primary Category: Titlepage

Purchase Reference: Ledger 2022

Rarity: R2 Very rare – one or two copies appear on the market

References: On the abduction of Europa myth, see Michael Wintle, The Image of Europe: Visualizing Europe in Cartography and Iconography Throughout the Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 10252. See also Michael Wintle, Europa and the Bull, Europe, and European Studies: Visual Images as Historical Source Material (Amsterdam: Vossius Press, 2004).nBlaeu, Joan Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana… Vol. 1, Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu, 1662

Shirley ID #: 52A Courtiers and Cannibals

Technique: Copper Engraving

This state: First

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