The city of Delft in 1649 1649

Joan Blaeu

InkPaperPrint
48 ⨯ 57 cm
€ 1.850

Inter-Antiquariaat Mefferdt & De Jonge

• About the artwork
  THE CITY OF DELFT "Delfi Batavorum vernacule Delft", copper engraving, published in Amsterdam by Joan Blaeu in 1649. Size (print) 37,7 x 48,5 cm. Coloured by a later hand. Verso: Latin description of Delft. Until the 17th century, Delft was one of the major cities of Holland. Already in 1400, the city had 6500 inhabitants and was the third largest in size, after Dordrecht (8000) and Haarlem (7000). In 1560 Amsterdam with 28,000 inhabitants had become the largest city, followed by Delft, Leiden and Haarlem, each of which had about 14,000 inhabitants. In the 17th century, Delft experienced a new heyday. A Chamber of the VOC was established in Delft. The city sent a fleet to Southeast Asia three times a year, importing spices, Chinese porcelain and other luxury goods. The tradition of Delftware originated from the import of Chinese porcelain, with an extensive pottery industry. During the Eighty Years' War, Delft became a center of resistance against the Spanish, after several cities and territories managed to evade Spanish authority in the 1570s. Prince William of Orange briefly resided in Delft, in the former Sint-Agatha monastery, which has since been called Prinsenhof. After William of Orange was declared an outlaw by King Philip II, he was also murdered there by Balthasar Gerards in 1584. William of Orange is buried in the Nieuwe Kerk, clearly visible on the map on the market square. After William of Orange, 45 members of the House of Orange and the House of Orange-Nassau were buried in the royal crypt. This map was published after the Peace of Münster (1648) as part of Joan Blaeu's town book of the Netherlands "Novum Ac Magnum Theatrum Urbium Belgicae Liberae Ac Foederatae". The Amsterdam cartographer and publisher Joan Blaeu set himself the task of simultaneously achieving the objectives of Abraham Ortelius (famous for the publication of the first modern atlas in 1578) and Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (known for their town book published at the end of 1600): a multi-volume world atlas added by a number of town books. The town book of the United Netherlands was published in a Latin edition in 1649; the Dutch edition was printed in 1652. Some of the maps included in this work had already been published in older maps, other maps were made entirely new for Blaeu's town book. Price: Euro 1.850,-
• 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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