Lot Essay
A fine 17th-century celestial globe with original colour and gilt. 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 among 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, 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 at the time of Blaeu's visit, the first in the West to produce an entirely new star catalogue since Ptolemy. He had attracted many astronomers and celestial cartographers to his observatory including, prior to Blaeu, globe-makers Arnold and Hendrik van Langren, 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 17th 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. 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; it was taken from his grandfather’s nickname, 'Blue'.
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, 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 at the time of Blaeu's visit, the first in the West to produce an entirely new star catalogue since Ptolemy. He had attracted many astronomers and celestial cartographers to his observatory including, prior to Blaeu, globe-makers Arnold and Hendrik van Langren, 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 17th 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. 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; it was taken from his grandfather’s nickname, 'Blue'.