Assouline
The Impossible Collection of Fashion
The hundred most iconic dresses of the twentieth century, hand-bound.
$995.00
Joan Blaeu, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, 1664. via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Taschen
Blaeu. Atlas Maior of 1665
The most expensive book of the seventeenth century, reproduced in full.
$200.00
Available · worldwide delivery
- Author
- Joan Blaeu; Peter van der Krogt
- Publisher
- Taschen
- Published
- January 2005
- Pages
- 0
- Format
- Hardcover
- Size
- Standard
- Language
- English
The Library Essay
Amsterdam Printed the Whole World
Joan Blaeu was cartographer to the Dutch East India Company at the height of Amsterdam's power, and his Atlas Maior of 1665 was the grandest thing the city's presses ever attempted, eleven volumes and nearly six hundred maps, engraved, hand-coloured and heightened with gold. It was the most expensive book money could buy in the seventeenth century, and it was bought as much for display as for navigation.
Taschen's facsimile reproduces a complete coloured set at generous scale, with commentary by the map historian Peter van der Krogt. The atlas records the world as the Dutch Golden Age understood it, coastlines exact where the ships had been and speculative where they had not, which makes it both a monument of printing and an honest portrait of what was actually known.
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