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WILLEM BLAEU, AFTER 1621
Details
A DUTCH TERRESTRIAL GLOBE
WILLEM BLAEU, AFTER 1621
A rare globe from the golden age of Dutch cartography.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) is regarded as the father of modern western globe-making. Not only did his firm start globe production as a viable commercial enterprise, the globes from his forty-year career are amongst the very finest and most beautiful ever published.
Blaeu was the son a of a herring merchant, born in the small provincial town of Alkmaar in what is now the Netherlands. It was prominent citizen Adriaan Anthonisz, a mathematician and an enthusiast for the liberal arts, whose son Adriaan Metius would later author a celestial globe for Hondius, who first encouraged Blaeu to take up astronomy. Over the winter of 1595⁄6 Blaeu stayed with the renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) at his observatory in Urienborg. Brahe was the leading astronomer of his day and the first in the West to produce an entirely new star catalogue since Ptolemy. He had attracted many astronomers and celestial cartographers of the day to his observatory including, prior to Blaeu, globe-makers Arnold and Hendrik van Langren whose own globes would benefit enormously from the influence of Brahe. In fact the van Langrens were the sons of Jakob Floris van Langren (1525-1610), who was the first person to publish globes in the important commercial port of Amsterdam, with a pair of 32.5cm. diameter in 1586. He soon had a commercial rival in the form of Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) who published a pair of 61cm. diameter globes in London in 1597 followed by an updated version in Amsterdam in 1597. Both would be eclipsed by Blaeu, however, both by the beauty of his own globes, and by the success and longevity of his publishing house.
In 1598⁄9 Blaeu moved to and settled in Amsterdam. It was here that he established his hugely successful publishing company which, throughout the course of the seventeenth century, would issue not only globes but maps, books, atlases and planetaria. His first publication was a terrestrial globe to match the celestial he had already made. This was dated 1599. Interestingly it is signed Guilielmo Ianßonio Alcmariano, meaning “Willem Jansz of Alkmaar”. This is the name that would appear on all of his initial five pairs of globes: he made a run of the 34cm. celestial dated 1603 to be sold with the terrestrial of 1599; by this time he had already produced pairs of 23cm. diameter, dated 1601; and he would go on to produce pairs of 13.5cm. (1606), 10cm. (1616) and his largest pair at 68cm. diameter in 1617. Keuning has shown that the name of Blaeu did not appear on a globe until at least 1621, adopted to avoid confusion with his nearest rival, the firm of Johannes Janssonius, and taken from his grandfather’s nickname, “Blue “ William; updated versions of all the pairs apart from the largest have been recorded, bearing the name of Blaeu. As well as these globes, Blaeu made a tellurian to illustrate Copernican theory; is the attributed maker of a 5.3cm. terrestrial pocket globe; and in 1634 published his celebrated globe manual Tweevoudigh Onderwijs van de Hemelsche en Aerdsche Globen.
After Willem’s death, the company was taken over by his son Joan (c.1598-1673), who in turn ceded it to Joan II (1650-1712). Both continued to reissue Willem’s globes, and this practice carried on even after the firm was sold to Jan Jansz van Ceulen (1635-1689) on 2 July 1682. The reason for the sale is not clear since by the mid seventeenth century, through the acquisition of other firms’ copper plates and tools, the Blaeus had an almost complete monopoly on globe-making in the Netherlands. Despite altering nothing but the address on the terrestrial globe, van Ceulen took this monopoly even further, applying for and receiving, in 1682, a charter for the sole production of globes in Holland for the next 15 years. Van Ceulen’s estate was purchased after his death by Johannes de Ram (1648-93) and following his death his widow, Maria van Zutphen, was remarried to Jacques de la Feuille (1668-1719) in 1696. De la Feuille’s are the last known reissues of Blaeu’s globes, and Dekker records rather sadly that “drink and abuse of his wife seem to have been de la Feuille’s only recorded activities and helped to put a sad end to a glorious globe-making enterprise, renowned over Europe”.
Twelve hand-coloured engraved gores and polar calottes applied to a 13 ½-inch sphere, the ecliptic and equator graduated, tropics and polar circles marked and labelled, hand-coloured in outline, showing the latest discoveries of Schouten and Le Maire around Cape Horn and the along the coast of Chile , elaborate dedication, address and explanation cartouches, Guilielmus Ianssonius Blaeu. Supported in graduated brass meridian with 9 punched on reverse (later hour ring and index arm) sitting in original oak stand with restorations, the horizon ring carrying hand-coloured engraved paper calendrical scales with restorations. Van der Krogt BLA I. State 3.
20 x 17 ½ x 17 ½in. (50.5 x 44.5 x 44.5.)
WILLEM BLAEU, AFTER 1621
A rare globe from the golden age of Dutch cartography.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638) is regarded as the father of modern western globe-making. Not only did his firm start globe production as a viable commercial enterprise, the globes from his forty-year career are amongst the very finest and most beautiful ever published.
Blaeu was the son a of a herring merchant, born in the small provincial town of Alkmaar in what is now the Netherlands. It was prominent citizen Adriaan Anthonisz, a mathematician and an enthusiast for the liberal arts, whose son Adriaan Metius would later author a celestial globe for Hondius, who first encouraged Blaeu to take up astronomy. Over the winter of 1595⁄6 Blaeu stayed with the renowned Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) at his observatory in Urienborg. Brahe was the leading astronomer of his day and the first in the West to produce an entirely new star catalogue since Ptolemy. He had attracted many astronomers and celestial cartographers of the day to his observatory including, prior to Blaeu, globe-makers Arnold and Hendrik van Langren whose own globes would benefit enormously from the influence of Brahe. In fact the van Langrens were the sons of Jakob Floris van Langren (1525-1610), who was the first person to publish globes in the important commercial port of Amsterdam, with a pair of 32.5cm. diameter in 1586. He soon had a commercial rival in the form of Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) who published a pair of 61cm. diameter globes in London in 1597 followed by an updated version in Amsterdam in 1597. Both would be eclipsed by Blaeu, however, both by the beauty of his own globes, and by the success and longevity of his publishing house.
In 1598⁄9 Blaeu moved to and settled in Amsterdam. It was here that he established his hugely successful publishing company which, throughout the course of the seventeenth century, would issue not only globes but maps, books, atlases and planetaria. His first publication was a terrestrial globe to match the celestial he had already made. This was dated 1599. Interestingly it is signed Guilielmo Ianßonio Alcmariano, meaning “Willem Jansz of Alkmaar”. This is the name that would appear on all of his initial five pairs of globes: he made a run of the 34cm. celestial dated 1603 to be sold with the terrestrial of 1599; by this time he had already produced pairs of 23cm. diameter, dated 1601; and he would go on to produce pairs of 13.5cm. (1606), 10cm. (1616) and his largest pair at 68cm. diameter in 1617. Keuning has shown that the name of Blaeu did not appear on a globe until at least 1621, adopted to avoid confusion with his nearest rival, the firm of Johannes Janssonius, and taken from his grandfather’s nickname, “Blue “ William; updated versions of all the pairs apart from the largest have been recorded, bearing the name of Blaeu. As well as these globes, Blaeu made a tellurian to illustrate Copernican theory; is the attributed maker of a 5.3cm. terrestrial pocket globe; and in 1634 published his celebrated globe manual Tweevoudigh Onderwijs van de Hemelsche en Aerdsche Globen.
After Willem’s death, the company was taken over by his son Joan (c.1598-1673), who in turn ceded it to Joan II (1650-1712). Both continued to reissue Willem’s globes, and this practice carried on even after the firm was sold to Jan Jansz van Ceulen (1635-1689) on 2 July 1682. The reason for the sale is not clear since by the mid seventeenth century, through the acquisition of other firms’ copper plates and tools, the Blaeus had an almost complete monopoly on globe-making in the Netherlands. Despite altering nothing but the address on the terrestrial globe, van Ceulen took this monopoly even further, applying for and receiving, in 1682, a charter for the sole production of globes in Holland for the next 15 years. Van Ceulen’s estate was purchased after his death by Johannes de Ram (1648-93) and following his death his widow, Maria van Zutphen, was remarried to Jacques de la Feuille (1668-1719) in 1696. De la Feuille’s are the last known reissues of Blaeu’s globes, and Dekker records rather sadly that “drink and abuse of his wife seem to have been de la Feuille’s only recorded activities and helped to put a sad end to a glorious globe-making enterprise, renowned over Europe”.
Twelve hand-coloured engraved gores and polar calottes applied to a 13 ½-inch sphere, the ecliptic and equator graduated, tropics and polar circles marked and labelled, hand-coloured in outline, showing the latest discoveries of Schouten and Le Maire around Cape Horn and the along the coast of Chile , elaborate dedication, address and explanation cartouches, Guilielmus Ianssonius Blaeu. Supported in graduated brass meridian with 9 punched on reverse (later hour ring and index arm) sitting in original oak stand with restorations, the horizon ring carrying hand-coloured engraved paper calendrical scales with restorations. Van der Krogt BLA I. State 3.
20 x 17 ½ x 17 ½in. (50.5 x 44.5 x 44.5.)
Provenance
Christie's King Street, 12 May 1993, lot 204.
Literature
van der Krogt, P. Globi Neerlandici, p.496 no. 76.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts