Description
One the most famous and desirable c.17th maps of Africa by one of the most important mapmakers of the, “Golden Age of Dutch Mapmaking“.
This is one of the most decorative and popular of all the early maps of Africa” (Norwich, Maps of Africa). Superbly embellished with ten panels of peoples on both sides and 9 vignettes of African cities. Blaeu only embellished in this way his maps of the world and each continents.
The Blaeu Atlas Maior brought to fruition the largest map publishing project the world had seen, and it reflected a number of important background factors: the emergence of the atlas idea and its growing popularity in Europe; the influences of Abraham Ortelius and Gerard Mercator; new geographic discoveries and a growing public interest in publications which reflected the wider world; the rise of the Low Countries and Amsterdam as centres of printing and map production; and the intense competition between Janssonius and Blaeu in their rival grand atlas projects
From the Dutch edition (1642) of: Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Atlas Maior (identified by the Dutch text on the verso and Blaeu’s name in the title panel.
