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LOW-COUNTRIES VOL. OF 1ST ED. ATLAS MAJOR; 63 COLOURED MAPS
BLAEU, Joan. Geographię Blauianę volumen quartum, quo libr IX, X, Europę continentur.
Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1662. Atlas folio (55.5 x 35.5 cm). The Low Countries volume of Blaeu's Great Atlas, with 62 double-page maps and 1 smaller map in the text. Further with Blaeu's woodcut publisher's device on the title-page and numerous large woodcut decorated initials. All 63 maps and the publisher's device coloured by a contemporary hand. Lacking the two engraved part-titles with letterpress slips. Contemporary gold-tooled overlapping vellum in a panel design with a large central ornament, gilt edges, early nineteenth-century letterpress spine label.
| Orders and Information | € 37500 |
The Low Countries volume of the first edition (in Latin) of the most famous Blaeu atlas of all time. Herman de la Fontaine Verwey called it the "greatest and finest atlas ever published." The first part of this volume covers the southern Netherlands (under Spanish control, more or less the modern Belgium) and its second part the northern Netherlands (the independent Dutch Republic, more or less the modern Netherlands).
Lacking the two engraved part-titles, which had letterpress slips with the titles for the southern and the northern Netherlands, but otherwise in good condition and with generous margins. A water stain in the corner of the title-page reaches one letter of the title; some marginal defects in the title-page and last few leaves do not approach the maps or text. The fore-edge of the front board is damaged and only parts of the green cloth ties survive. A classic atlas, with very detailed maps of the Low Countries during the Dutch golden age, coloured by a contemporary hand.
