19th Century Copy Of Asia Noviter Delineata 1635 (published) Amsterdam by: Willem Janszoon Blaeu. PLEASE LOOK AT MY OTHER MAP LISTINGS.

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Measurements: 15 1/2”H x 18 3/8”W.

Condition: Amazing condition considering its age from the 1800’s. ( not a vintage print). Please Examine Photos Carefully for condition.

By: Willem Janszoon Blaeu

This is a fine old color COPY example of Blaeu's decorative map of Asia.

The map is ornamented with 9 views of various cities within the continent and flanked by 10 vignettes showing pairs of indigenous people dressed in their traditional garb. There are many geographical and decorative aspects of this map worth noting. In the north the long-believed existence of the Northeast Passage is revealed as the land mass Nova Zembla is mapped with no east coast and a clear passage is shown to exist to the Anian Straight that opens to the Pacific.

Korea is featured as an island just west of the abnormally shaped Japan. Much of the north and west coasts of the Spice Islands are mapped in detail while many of the south and eastern coasts are blank. This shows the extent of Dutch cartographic knowledge and their areas of occupation during the mid-17th century spice trade.

Several indigenous animals are scattered throughout the map including an elephant just north of a large lake that was believed to be the source of the Ganges, when in actuality it was the Himalayas that had yet to be seen by European eyes. A Bactrian camel and its master can be seen just west of the Great Wall of China and a lion is depicted on the prowl in northern Africa.

The map is ornamented with 9 views of various cities within the continent and flanked by 10 vignettes showing pairs of indigenous people dressed in their traditional garb.The oceans are accented with 5 sailing ships a sea monster in the Pacific and a merman blowing a conch shell in the Indian Ocean. French text on verso.

ABOUT Blaeu (Cartographer):

Blaeu was born at Uitgeest or Alkmaar. As the son of a well-to-do herring salesman, he was destined to succeed his father in the trade, but his interests lay more in mathematics and astronomy. Between 1594 and 1596, as a student of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, he qualified as an instrument and globe maker. In 1600 he discovered the second ever variable star, now known as P Cygni.

Once he returned to Holland, he made country maps and world globes, and as he possessed his own printing works, he was able to regularly produce country maps in an atlas format, some of which appeared in the Atlas Novus published in 1635. In 1633 he was appointed map-maker of the Dutch East India Company. He was also an editor and published works of Willebrord Snell, Descartes, Adriaan Metius, Roemer Visscher, Gerhard Johann Vossius, Barlaeus, Hugo Grotius, Vondel and the historian and poet Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. He died in Amsterdam.

He had two sons, Johannes and Cornelis Blaeu, who continued their father's mapmaking and publishing business after his death in 1638. Prints of the family's works are still sold today. Original maps are rare collector items.

Blaeu's maps were featured in the works of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer of Delft (1632–1675), who holds a position of great honor among map historians. Several of his paintings illustrate maps hanging on walls or globes standing on tables or cabinets. Vermeer painted these cartographical documents with such detail that it is often possible to identify the actual maps. Evidently, Vermeer was particularly attached to a Willem Blaeu – Balthasar Florisz van Berckenrode map of Holland and West Friesland, as he represented it as a wall decoration in three of his paintings. Though no longer extant, the map's existence is known from archival sources and the second edition published by Willem Blaeu in 1621, titled Nova et Accurata Totius Hollandiae Westfriesiaeq. Topographia, Descriptore Balthazaro Florentio a Berke[n]rode Batavo. Vermeer must have had a copy at his disposal (or the earlier one published by Van Berckenrode). Around 1658 he showed it as a wall decoration in his painting Officer and Laughing Girl, which depicts a soldier in a large hat sitting with his back to viewer, talking with a smiling girl who holds a glass in her hand. Bright sunlight bathes the girl and the large map on the wall. Vermeer's gift for realism is evidenced by the fact that the wall map, mounted on linen and wooden rods, is identifiable as Blaeu's 1621 map of Holland and West Friesland. He captures faithfully its characteristic design, decoration, and geographic content.

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