Atlas Maior - Hollandia Et Belgica (French Edition) [Hardcover]

Joan Blaeu (Author), Peter Van der Krogt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Maps of Holland and Belgium from Joan Blaeu's exquisite world atlas of 1665 The finest and most comprehensive baroque atlas was Joan Blaeu's exceptional Atlas Maior, completed in 1665. The original eleven-volume Latin edition, containing 594 maps, put Blaeu ahead of his staunch competitor, mapmaker Joanes Janssonius, whose rivalry inspired Blaeu to produce a grandiose edition of the largest and most complete atlas to date. Covering Arctica, Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, Blaeu's Atlas Maior was a remarkable achievement and remains to this day one of history's finest examples of mapmaking. This reprint, including all 63 maps of Belgium and Holland (known in 1665 as the Republic of the United Netherlands and the Spanish or Royal Netherlands), is made from the National Library of Vienna's colored, gold-heightened copy, thus assuring the best possible detail and quality. Alongside original quotes from Joan Blaeu relating to the individual maps, the new text by Peter van der Krogt explains the historical and cultural associations and introduces the reader into the fascinating world of early modern cartography. The text is in Dutch, French and English. The author: Peter van der Krogt, the leading expert in the field of Dutch atlases, is a collaborator on the Explokart Research Program for the History of Cartography at the University of Utrecht's Faculty of Geosciences. Since 1990 he has been working on Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, the carto-bibliography of atlases published in the Netherlands. His second project is the compilation, in co-operation with the Nijmegen University, of an illustrated and annotated catalogue of the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, the most important multi-volume atlaspreserved in the Austrian National Library, which was added to Unesco's ?Memory of the World? register in 2004.

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About the Author

Joan Blaeu (1596 Alkmaar - 1673 Amsterdam) was the son of Willem Blaeu and a leading Dutch cartographer. In 1620 he became a doctor of law and subsequently joined his father's workshop. In 1635 they published the two-volume Novus Atlas (Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus). Joan and his brother Cornelius took over the workshop after their father had died in 1638. Joan became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Around 1649 he published a collection of Dutch city maps entitled Tooneel der Steeden (Theater of Cities). In 1651 he was voted into the Amsterdam council. In 1654 he published the first atlas of Scotland. In 1662 he reissued the atlas in 11 volumes, known as the Atlas Maior. A cosmology was planned as his next project, but a fire destroyed the workshop in 1672. Joan Blaeu died in the following year. Since 1990, Peter van der Krogt, the leading expert in the field of Dutch atlases, has been working on Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, the cartobibliography of atlases published in the Netherlands. His second project is the compilation, in cooperation with the Nijmegen University, of an illustrated and annotated catalogue of the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, the most important multivolume atlas preserved in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 207 pages
• Publisher: Taschen; Annotated edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: French
• ISBN-10: 3822851035
• ISBN-13: 978-3822851036
• Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 10.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,625,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)