Joan BLAEU (1596-1673), Title page of "Atlas Maior ..."

copperplate engraving colored in watercolor, paper; 48 x 31 cm (clear passe-partout);
signed on panel l. d.: L. Webbers pinxit
and p. d.: J. M [...] khuyse Sculp.
Depicts Atlas with the celestial sphere on his shoulders; in the foreground Kybele, "Mother Earth" with a crown on her head and a lion at her feet, Neptune on a globe surrounded by cartographic instruments.
"Atlas Maior cum generales omnium Totius Orbis regnorum ..." is the final version of Joan Blaeu's atlas, published in Amsterdam between 1621 and 1650, containing 594 maps and some 3,000 pages of text. It was the largest and most expensive publication of the 17th century. Earlier, from 1634, much smaller versions of "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive ...", "Atlas Novus ..." were published. Like "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ..." by Abraham Ortelius (1570), "Atlas Maior ..." is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the golden age of Dutch-Dutch cartography (circa 1570-1670).
Joan Blaeu (1596-1673) was the son and collaborator of Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), a leading Dutch cartographer. In 1635 they published a two-volume "Atlas Novus" ("Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus ...").

Joan and his brother Cornelius took over the workshop after their father's death (1638). Joan became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Around 1649 he published a collection of plans of Dutch cities, "Tooneel der Steeden" (Theater of Cities). In 1651 he was elected to the Amsterdam council. In 1654 he published the first atlas of Scotland. In 1662 he reissued the atlas in 11 volumes, known as "Atlas Maior." A cosmology was planned as the next project, but in 1672 the workshop was destroyed by fire. Joan Blaeu died the following year.