Joan Blaeu
Encyclopedia
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
cartographer.
He was born in Alkmaar
Alkmaar
Alkmaar is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of Noord Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination.-History:...
, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu
Willem Blaeu
Willem Janszoon Blaeu , also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher....
.
In 1620 he became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father. In 1635 they published the Atlas Novus
Atlas Maior
The Atlas Maior is a comprehensive world atlas, conceived by Willem Blaeu of Amsterdam, but compiled by his son Joan Blaeu, and completed in 1665...
(full title: Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas novus) in two volumes. Joan and his brother Cornelius took over the studio after their father died in 1638. Joan became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
.
Around 1649 Joan Blaeu published a collection of Dutch city map
City map
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
s named Tooneel der Steeden (Views of Cities). In 1651 he was voted into the Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
council. In 1654 Joan published the first atlas of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, devised by Timothy Pont
Timothy Pont
Timothy Pont was a Scottish topographer, the first to produce a detailed map of Scotland. Pont's maps are among the earliest surviving to show a European country in minute detail, from an actual survey.-Life:...
. In 1662 he reissued the atlas with 11 volumes, and one for oceans. It was also known as Atlas Maior.
A cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
was planned as their next project, but a fire destroyed the studio completely in 1672. Joan Blaeu died in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
the following year.
External links
- Volume 1 of the Atlas Novus
- Utrecht University
- Arader Galleries' Collection of Maps from Blaeu's Atlas Major.
- Brazil map by Joan Blaeu, Amsterdam 1650 (high resolution zoomable scan)
- Plan of Delft from Joan Blaeu' Town book, Amsterdam 1660 (high resolution zoomable scan)
- Blaeu on the Dutch map
- Jonathan Potter Maps