17TH-CENTURY UTRECHT 1652

Joan Blaeu

Paper
38 ⨯ 50 cm
€ 1.650

Inter-Antiquariaat Mefferdt & De Jonge

• About the artwork
  17TH-CENTURY UTRECHT “Traiectum Wttrecht,” copper engraving published by Joan Blaeu, ca. 1649 in his famous town book of the Netherlands: "Het Toneel der Steden van de Vereenigde Nederlanden met hare Beschrijvingen" [The Theatre of the Cities of the United Netherlands with their Descriptions]. Coloured by a later hand. Size approx. 38 × 50 cm. The copperplate from which the print was made must have been engraved between 1642 and 1649, since the Smeetoren, which was converted into an astronomical observatory in 1642, is indicated in the legend (no. 56) as “observatorium.” The map reflects the situation of 1642–1644, as the Pieterstraat—laid out in 1644—does not yet appear. The map contains several inaccuracies: the Salvatorkerk, already demolished in 1587, is still depicted; the Catharijne Gate is shown in its pre-1625 form; and the Vaartse Rijn and Oude Rijn are incorrectly oriented. After the founding of the university in 1636, the city created a sports field outside the city moat for the students, where the then-popular game of jeu de mail could be played (legend no. 53: Palle maille baen). With its six pall-mall players and rows of trees, the map provides a clear impression of this 17th-century recreation ground. The Amsterdam cartographer and publisher Joan Blaeu sought to fulfill the ambitions of earlier mapmakers Abraham Ortelius and Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg by adding a series of city books to his multi-volume world atlas. Blaeu’s Toneel der Steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden appeared in a Latin edition in 1649; the Dutch edition was printed in 1652. Some of the maps included in the work had already been published in earlier atlases—21, for instance, in Marcus Boxhorn’s Theatrum Hollandiae of 1632—while others were newly engraved specifically for Blaeu’s town book. It is known that Blaeu sent letters to city councils requesting that they provide him with a city plan and a written description to include in his work. Literature: “Kaarten van Utrecht” – Donkersloot de Vrij (1989), no. 14 Prijs Euro 1.650,-
• About the artist

  Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), was born on the 23rd of September in 1596 in Alkmaar.
  
  He was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar. He followed the footsteps of his father, cartographer Willem Blaeu.
  
  In 1620 he became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635 they published the Atlas Novus (full title: Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus) in two volumes. Joan and his brother Cornelius took over the studio after their father died in 1638. Joan became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company.
  
  Blaeu's world map, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, incorporating the discoveries of Abel Tasman, was published in 1648. This map was revolutionary in that it "depicts the solar system according to the heliocentric theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, which show the earth revolving around the sun.... Although Copernicus's groundbreaking book On the Revolutions of the Spheres had been first printed in 1543, just over a century earlier, Blaeu was the first mapmaker to incorporate this revolutionary heliocentric theory into a map of the world."
  
  Blaeu's map was copied for the map of the world set into the pavement of the Groote Burger-Zaal of the new Amsterdam Town Hall, designed by the Dutch architect Jacob van Campen (now the Amsterdam Royal Palace), in 1655.
  
  Blaeu's Hollandia Nova was also depicted in his Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in 1659 in the Kurfürsten Atlas (Atlas of the Great Elector). and used by Melchisédech Thévenot to produce his map, Hollandia Nova—Terre Australe (1664).
  
  As "Jean Blaeu", he also published the 12 volume "Le Grand Atlas, ou Cosmographie blaviane, en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer, et le ciel". One edition is dated 1663. That was folio (540 x 340 mm), and contained 593 engraved maps and plates. In March 2015, a copy was on sale for £750,000.
  
  Around 1649 Joan Blaeu published a collection of Dutch city maps named Toonneel der Steeden (Views of Cities). In 1651 he was voted into the Amsterdam council. In 1654 Joan published the first atlas of Scotland, devised by Timothy Pont. In 1662 he reissued the Atlas Novus, also known as Atlas Maior, in 11 volumes, and one for oceans.
  
  A cosmology was planned as their next project, but a fire destroyed the studio completely in 1672.
  
  Joan Blaeu died in Amsterdam the following year, 1673. He was buried in the Westerkerk at Amsterdam.

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