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Blaeu's Atlas Maior

Willem Janzoon Blaeu

Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) born at Alkmaar, trained in astronomy and the sciences by Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer, founded his business in Amsterdam in 1599. Originally a globe and instrument maker, he later expanded into publishing maps, topographical works and books of sea charts. He bought between 30 and 40 plates of the Mercator Atlas from Jodocus Hondius II which he utilized in part, in 1630, to complete his Atlantis Appendix, a 60-map volume. It was another five years before the first two volumes of his planned world atlas, Atlas Novus or the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum were issued. At about this same time he was appointed Hydrographer to the East India Company. A true rivalry developed between Willem and Jan Jansson. Before 1620, Blaeu signed his works Guilielmus Janssonius or Willems Jans Zoon. From 1620 onward, he apparently preferred Guilielmus or G. Blaeu. He died in 1638.

Joan Blaeu

After Willem's death the business passed into the hands of his sons, Joan (1596-1673) and Cornelis, who continued and expanded their father's ambitious plans. After the early death of Cornelis in 1642, Joan directed the work alone and the whole series of 6 volumes of Atlas Novus or Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was eventually completed around 1655. As soon as it was finished, Joan began the preparation of the even larger work, the Atlas Major, which was first published in 1662 in 11 volumes.  Later editions contained between 9 and 12 volumes and with nearly 600 double-page maps and 3,000 pages of text. This was the most magnificent work of its kind ever produced.

Between 1662 and 1672 Joan Blaeu published his famous Atlas Maior, or 'Great Atlas', in Amsterdam. The Atlas Maior was edited in Latin, French, Dutch, and Spanish, and, depending on the edition, bound in nine to twelve volumes. With almost 600 double page maps covering the entire known world and with over 3,000 pages of text, the Atlas Maior was the largest and most expensive book published in the 17th century, then costing 45,000 florins. They combine great artistry with geographic accuracy and cartographic innovat ion. Indeed some map collectors consider that the maps of Joan Blaeu are the finest published anywhere in the 17th century. Unfortunately a fire destroyed the Gravenstadt family printing house in 1672 and Joan died only a year later. The firm's surviving stocks of plates and maps were sold, some to Frederick de Wit, Pieter Schenk and Gerard Valck.

Still, for over a hundred years, Blaeu's Atlas Maior remained the standard world atlas and the premier product of the Dutch publishing industry, the most prestigious in the world. Collectors wealthy enough to acquire a copy of the Atlas Maior often treated the atlas as a portmanteau for other cartographical, topographical, historical, and ethnographical prints and drawings. One such example is the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem. 

History of the Atlas Maior

Joan Blaeu's Atlas Maior is the result of thirty years of competition in the production of atlases. Two editors were involved in this rivalry to produce the largest atlas in existence: Johannes Janssonius, son-in-law and successor of Jodocus Hondius, and Joan Blaeu. It all started in 1630 when Willem Jansz. Blaeu - probably urged by his son Joan Blaeu - published a modest Appendix to the atlas of Mercator. The publication of this appendix - a series of maps without explanatory texts - was the first infringement on the monopoly that the house of Hondius-Janssonius had held since the publication of the first Mercator-Hondius atlas in 1606.

The history of the original Mercator atlases started in 1585. Gerard Mercator published four parts of his Atlas in 1585 and 1589, and a fifth part was published in 1595 by his son Rumold. The Atlas was not yet complete, but Jodocus Hondius Sr., who had obtained the copperplates in 1604 completed the work. His edition, the Mercator-Hondius atlas, appeared in 1606. During the next 25 years Hondius, his sons and his son-in-law published several editions of the Atlas. The atlas didn't change significantly in content though: only a few maps were slightly improved.

Blaeu's Appendix of 1630 necessitated, and resulted in, an extension and renewal of the Mercator-Hondius atlas. But also for Blaeu himself the Appendix was not yet enough. Already in 1631 an extended Appendix followed the first one - this time with explanatory texts to the maps. Some years later Willem Jansz. Blaeu and his son Joan completed their first atlas plans. In 1635 they had published an atlas of two volumes with over 200 maps in four different languages: German, Latin, French, and Dutch. They entitled their atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Novus Atlas.

An edition in three volumes with additional maps was planned, and appeared in 1640. In the meantime, in 1638, Janssonius and Hondius published their Novus Atlas, the successor to the Mercator-atlas in three volumes and four editions of different languages. The rivalry continued, and each couple of years both editors added a new volume to their Novus Atlas. In 1645 Blaeu published a fourth volume, containing maps of all English counties. The next year Janssonius's copied edition appeared as an atlas of the British Islands: he had added maps of Scotland and Ireland. In 1650 a fifth volume of Janssonius Novus Atlas followed: a sea-atlas. For the time being Blaeu sticked to 'land'-atlases and published his atlas of Scotland in 1653, followed by an atlas of China in 1655. Consequently from 1655 on Blaeu had an atlas in six volumes and Janssonius an atlas in five volumes. Between 1658 and 1662 Janssonius also produced a sixth volume, dedicated to history. In content Janssonius's atlas in six volumes offered a better overview of the world than Blaeu's atlas: not only the land, but also the sea and history were represented. Moreover, in 1660 Janssonius also added to his catalogue a celestial atlas, the Harmonia Macrocosmica by Cellarius. By now Janssonius had completed the cosmography, the Atlas as it was originally intended by Mercator: a description of the old and new geography, of the seas and of the heavens.

Joan Blaeu, realizing that his rival would take the lead, also announced a cosmography, far more ambitious in scope than Janssonius's. This cosmography would be titled: Atlas Maior, sive Cosmographia Blaviana, qua solum, salum, coelum, accuratissime describuntur (Major Atlas or Blaeu's Cosmography, in which are most accurately described earth, sea, and heaven). The project was never fully realized. Only the first part, the modern geography, was published, under the title Geographia, qu' est Cosmographi' Blavian' pars prima, qua orbis terr' tabulis ante oculos ponitur, et descriptionibus illustratur (Geography, first part of Blaeu's Cosmography, in which maps of the world are presented before one's eyes, elucidated with descriptions). This first published part is the Latin edition of the Atlas Maior in eleven volumes as we now know it (the Dutch and French editions had nine, respectively twelve volumes).

The Latin edition of the Atlas Maior contains 593 maps, of which many were specifically made for this edition. The other maps had already been used for previous atlases by Blaeu. The content of the Atlas Maior is divided into five sections: Arctica (1 book), Europe (17 books), Africa (1 book), Asia (2 books), and America (1 book). Each section contains one or more books. The division in volumes stands apart from the subdivision into sections and books. All the sections, books, and volumes are provided with distinct title-pages.

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Created: Monday, December 16, 2002; Last updated: Wednesday, September 05, 2007
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