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TERRESTRIAL, HISTORICAL, MARITIME & CELESTIAL ATLAS IN 11 VOLUMES
MAGNIFICENT COLOURED COPY WITH 54 ADDITIONAL MAPS TO 1687
JANSSONIUS, Johannes. Atlas Major, sive Cosmographia Universalis ...
Amsterdam, heirs of Johannes Janssonius, 1675 (with additions to 1687). Imperial folio (51 x 32 cm). 11 Volumes. With 2 letterpress title-pages (each with the same woodcut publisher's device), 11 engraved title-pages (9 with the titles on letterpress slips), 605 engraved maps, mostly double-page with a few larger folding (including 54 added maps by Nicolaas VISSCHER and Frederick DE WIT). Further with 3 engraved views, 4 engraved diagrams, numerous woodcut diagrams, monuments, coins, etc. in the text. With all engraved title-pages, maps, publisher's devices and the views, larger diagrams and many woodcuts in the text coloured by a contemporary hand, the engraved title-pages and some celestial charts also highlighted in gold. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, in a panel design with a large centrepiece with an armillary sphere in the centre opening, cornerpieces and 2 rolls, rebacked, gilt edges, new silk ties. Each volume with the eighteenth-century bookplate of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
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cf. Koeman, Me 181 (5 copies, apparently 3 complete and 2 incomplete); Koeman & V.d. Krogt 1:406 (6 complete copies including the present, the only copy with Visscher and De Wit's additional maps and 2 variant title-pages and therefore listed separately as 406B).
The magnificent Wardington set, formerly owned by the English Royal chapel at Windsor Castle, of the most wide ranging and one of the largest atlases of the Dutch Golden Age, the last great atlas to be published by the firm of Janssonius. It not only includes a complete terrestrial atlas of the world (volumes I-VIII), but also a maritime world atlas (volume IX), an atlas of the ancient world (volume X) and a celestial atlas (volume XI). The present copy is embellished with 54 extra maps by the two cartographers who took over Blaeu and Jansonnius's leading role in the 1670s: Nicolaas Visscher and Frederick De Wit (or in at least one case Claes Jansz. Visscher). These extra maps have no letterpress text on the reverse and have been added at the relevant places in the atlas. Janssonius had published his six-volume Atlas Novus in the years 1657 to 1659, and the present volumes I to X are a greatly expanded edition, still using many of the engraved title-pages of the earlier edition (most with coats of arms from the regions covered), some with their dates still present. He published the celestial atlas (the present volume XI) separately in 1660 and 1661. Janssonius died in 1664 and his heirs (including his son-in-law Jan Janssonius van Waesberg) sold the materials of the printing office in 1666, but they continued publishing atlases. In the present case, they did not simply reissue the old atlases, but added maps from their 1666 Atlas Contractus and others they had produced since Janssonius's death, along with a few earlier maps. Since some volumes of the 1657-1659 edition had to be divided in the expanded edition, there was no engraved title-page that had been specially made for the regions covered by some volumes in the new edition, and in these cases different copies may have different title-pages, often of a more general nature. The original title-page for the British Isles served for the volume covering southern England, but there was none to cover the northern part, which included Scotland. The present copy is the only one known to display an ingenious solution: it borrows the title-page of Blaeu's 1662 atlas of Scotland, with the Scottish coat of arms and still bearing Blaeu's imprint. The letterpress slip pasted over the central panel, giving the actual title, matches those of the other volumes in style and printing types, showing that Janssonius's heirs did indeed issue it in this form. The 1657-1659 edition included the maritime atlas and atlas of the ancient world, but the heirs expanded its scope still further by adding the 1661 celestial atlas as volume XI. Each volume has its own printed index leaf, indicating which maps were to be included in this expanded edition.
In 1672 a fire destroyed the new printing office of Janssonius's great rival Joan Blaeu, who died in the following year, and the firm never fully recovered from the blow, coming at the same time as the French invasion that lead to a decline in the Dutch economy generally. Jansonnius's heirs may have hoped to take advantage of the reduced competition by publishing the present atlas, at the same time showing off by giving it a wider scope than the great Blaeu atlases, but it was to prove their swan song. They too faced difficult times, selling off much of their stock in 1676. Waesberg and his sons continued to publish books for three more decades, but it was Nicolaas Visscher and Frederick De Wit who were to take over Blaeu and Janssonius's role as the leading Dutch cartographers and atlas publishers. It is not clear whether one of them acquired copies of Janssonius's 1675 atlas at the 1676 auction and brought it up-to-date with their own maps, or whether Janssonius's heirs simply acknowledged their rivals' supremacy and added the maps themselves. In either case, the present atlas combines the older splendour of the vast Janssonius atlas of the modern world, the seas, the ancient world and the heavens, with more recent maps by the best Dutch map makers (Visscher's map of Hungary in volume II is dated 1687). Because of these additions, Van der Krogt records the present copy alone under 1:406B with the location "Oxon PC" (meaning the private collection of Wardington in Oxfordshire, England).
In very good condition, with only an occasional minor defect. Beautifully coloured copy, with 54 extra maps, of one of the largest atlases of the Dutch Golden Age, covering the modern world, the seas, the ancient world and the heavens.
Contents of the volumes:
Volume I. [Northern and Eastern Europe] Atlas Major ... continens Regna & Regiones Septentrionales, 1675. Letterpress title-page with hand-coloured wood-cut device. Engraved title (Novus Atlas, dated 1658). 48 hand-coloured maps (43 as listed in the index, plus 5 additional maps by Visscher: the World; Europe; Poland; Sweden and Norway; Denmark), 6 woodcut diagrams (5 hand-coloured).
Volume II. [Northern and Eastern Germany] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Germaniae Pars Septentrionalis & Orientalis, no date. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 72 hand-coloured maps (65 as listed in the index, plus 7 additional maps, 5 by Visscher: Germany; Pomerania; Brandenburg; Rhine; Lower Alsace and Hungary, and 2 by Frederick de Wit: Lower Saxony; Alsace). Expert old repair to map 50 (Danube).
Volume III. [Southern and Western Germany] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Germaniae Pars Australis & Occidentalis simul & Germaniae Inferior, no date. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 91 hand-coloured maps (67 as listed in the index, plus 24 additional maps by Nicolas and C.J. Visscher: Jülich; XVII Provinces of the Low Countries; United (Republican) Netherlands; Gelderland; Zutphen; Overijsel; Groningen; Friesland (including Groningen and Emden); Friesland; Holland; Utrecht; Zeeland; Royal (Spanish) Netherlands; Brabant; North Brabant; Antwerp; Land van Waas; Mechelen; Limburg; Luxemburg; Namur; Hainaut; Artois; Flanders and Berger; Brouccborger Ambacht).
Volume IV. [France and Switzerland] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Gallia & Helvetia, no date. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 75 hand-coloured maps, (74 as listed in the index, plus 1 additional map of France by Visscher). The map of Switzerland cut down to the plate edges and pasted over the same map in an earlier state at an early date, with the letterpress text.
Volume V. [Southern England and Wales] Atlantis Majores ... Que continetur Magnae Britannae Pars Australis, 1659. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 25 hand-coloured maps, 3 hand-coloured engraved views (including Stonehenge), numerous woodcuts (most hand-coloured). For the index, see vol. VI.
Volume VI. [Northern England, Scotland and Ireland] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Magnae Britanniae Pars Septentrionalis, Scotia & Hibernia, 1662, with the imprint of Joan Blaeu in the plate. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 31 hand-coloured maps, numerous woodcuts (some hand-coloured). The index (covering vols. V and VI) calls for a map "Insulae Scotiae," but there is no gap in the series of signatures and it is not mentioned in Koeman or Van der Krogt.
Volume VII. [Italy] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Italia, no date. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 63 hand-coloured maps (59 as listed in the index, plus 4 additional maps by Visscher: Italy; Sicily; Greece; the Peloponnese).
Volume VIII. [Spain and Asia, Africa and America] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Hispania, ut & Asia, Africa & America, no date. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 71 maps (65 as listed in the index, plus 6 additional maps by Visscher: Spain and Portugal; Portugal; Asia; Palestine; Africa; America).
Volume IX. [Marine Atlas] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Orbis Maritimus, 1657. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 38 hand-coloured engraved maps (32 as listed in the index, plus 6 additional maps by Visscher: West Indies; Martinique; New England (state 3); East Indies; Malta; Crete).
Volume X. [Historical Atlas] Atlantis Majoris ... Quo continetur Orbis Antiquus & Graecia, "1566" [= 1666]. Hand-coloured engraved title-page with letterpress title-slip. 61 hand-coloured engraved maps (59 as listed in the index, plus 2 additional maps, as usual: Greece; the Empire of Charlemagne).
Volume XI. [Celestial Atlas] Andreas CELLARIUS. Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1661. Letterpress title-page with hand-coloured woodcut device. Hand-coloured engraved title-page, 29 hand-coloured engraved celestial charts, some highlighted in gold, 4 engraved and 2 small woodcut diagrams in the text (the largest hand-coloured).
