ATLAS MAIOR OF 1665:HISPANIA PORTUGALLIA AFRICA & AMERICA

Book Description

Maps of Spain, Portugal, Africa and America from Joan Blaeu's exquisite world atlas of 1665 is drawn from one of the most refined and complete Baroque world atlases ever produced—Joan Blaeu’s Atlas Maior, completed in 1665. The original Latin eleven-volume edition contained 594 maps, securing Blaeu’s position as the leading cartographer of his time and surpassing his rival Joanes Janssonius. Spanning the Arctic, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, the Atlas Maior remains one of the largest and most comprehensive atlases in history and a pinnacle of mapmaking.

This facsimile edition includes all 28 maps of Spain and Portugal, 13 maps of Africa, and 23 maps of the Americas, taken from the National Library of Vienna’s hand-colored and gold-heightened copy to ensure the finest quality and detail. Alongside Blaeu’s original quotations for each map, new commentary by Dutch atlas expert Peter van der Krogt offers rich historical and cultural insights, guiding readers into the fascinating realm of early modern cartography. The text is presented in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Author Peter van der Krogt, a foremost authority on Dutch atlases, has been a key contributor to the Explokart Research Program for the History of Cartography at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences. Since 1990, he has overseen the compilation of Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici and, in collaboration with Radboud University Nijmegen, has co-compiled an illustrated and annotated edition of the Blaeu–Van der Hem Atlas—the Austrian National Library’s most significant multi-volume atlas, inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register in 2004.

Details

Author: Joan Blaeu, Peter Van der Krogt
Publisher: TASCHEN
Publication Year: 2006
Dimensions: 38 × 25 cm
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 232