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1ST ISSUE OF BLAEU'S ATLAS OF CITIES OF THE NETHERLANDS
BLAEU, Joan. Toonneel der Steden van de Vereenighde Nederlanden, met hare beschrijvingen.
[Amsterdam], Joan Blaeu, ca. 1652. Imperial folio (52 x 34.5 cm). Engraved armorial title-page with the title on a letterpress slip, 8 part-titles, 128 city plans, city views and architectural views, mostly double-page, and a few small engravings and woodcuts in the text. Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, red-sprinkled edges.
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The rare first issue of the only Dutch edition of Blaeu's great atlas of the cities and towns of the Netherlands, with plans, views, description and histories of hundreds of cities and towns in the Northern Netherlands (the Dutch Republic). "Of all the Blaeu atlases, the townbooks of the Netherlands are held in the highest esteem" (Koeman). Koeman distinguishes 3 versions of the Dutch cites atlas, but the minor variations Koeman notes in the makeup of the preliminaries appear to have little or no bearing on the chronology. Ours includes all six preliminary text leaves: Blaeu's 3-page note to the reader, the 1-page note to the same, the 1-page privilege from the States General (21 November 1648, verso blank), 1-page privilege from King Philip of Spain (19 February 1649, verso blank) and 1-page privilege from King Louis of France (27 September 1649, verso blank). The "later" versions of the text for Amsterdam and The Hague that Koeman uses to distinguish his third version (with dates 1651, one noting "als ick dit schreef," that is, "as I wrote this") in fact appear in all copies. The text also notes the deaths in 1651 of the Amsterdam Burgomasters Pieter Hasselaer, Cornelis Boom and Jan Cornelisz. Geelvinck, who died on 5 February, 22 August and 9 November respectively. But the texts for Alkmaar and Enkhuizen were replaced by expanded versions (these sections being expanded from 1 sheet each to 3 and 1 1/2 sheets, all including the map on a double-page spread) and sheet ij PQS covering Edam, Monnickendam and Purmerend was reprinted with a different arrangement of the maps (first with Monnickendam above right, then with Purmerend above right) and some changes in the setting of the text (we are grateful to Peter van der Krogt for information). In all three cases the present copy has the earlier versions, which seem to be less common than the later ones. Some of the paper bears no watermark; some is watermarked: PH monogram = -- (Heawood 2935: see also 1362).
In very good condition, with only an occasional worm hole or minor tear, one tear affecting a small part of the plan of the battle of Nieuwpoort and the woodcut initial on its reverse. The binding very good, with ties gone.
