Willem Blaeu

Globe from 1602. The workshop made globes in pairs: one to represent the heavens and another the Earth.Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571 – 21 October 1638), also known as Willem Jansz. Blaeu (;, was a Dutch cartographer, globe maker, and publisher. He was one of the leading figures of the Dutch school of cartography in the seventeenth century.

Trained in astronomy under Tycho Brahe between 1594 and 1596, Blaeu established a workshop in Amsterdam where he produced globes, nautical charts, and maps. These works formed the basis of a series of atlases, including the Atlas Novus (1635), and were widely used in navigation and geographic study.

In 1633 he was appointed mapmaker to the Dutch East India Company. After his death in 1638, his business was continued by his sons, including Joan Blaeu, who later published the multi-volume Atlas Maior, one of the most extensive atlases of the seventeenth century. Biography

Early life Willem Janszoon Blaeu was born in 1571 at Alkmaar or Uitgeest, in the Dutch Republic, the son of Stijntge and Jan Willemsz., a prosperous herring merchant. He was destined to succeed his father in the trade, but his interests lay more in mathematics and astronomy. He would also become a well established cartographer. He made country maps and world globes, and as he possessed his own printing works, he was able to regularly produce country maps in an atlas format, some of which appeared in the Atlas Novus published in 1635.

One of the most clearly identifiable examples is the wall map of Holland and West Friesland designed by Balthasar Florisz van Berckenrode and published by Blaeu in 1621. The map appears prominently in Vermeer's painting Officer and Laughing Girl, where its geography and decorative cartouches are visible behind the figures. A similar map also appears in Woman Reading a Letter. Works published by Willem Blaeu Blaeu's map of the Viceroyalty of Peru and the south Pacific Ocean.

Aardglobe (1599) Hemelglobe (1603) Nieuw Graetboeck (1605) Nywe Paskaerte (1606) 't Licht der zeevaert (1608) Spieghel der Schrijfkonste (1609) "Nova et Accurata Totius Hollandiae Westfriesiaeq. Topographia, Descriptore Balthazaro Florentio a Berkerode Batavo" Tafelen van de declinatie der Sonne (1623) Tafelen van de breedte van de opgang der Sonne Zeespiegel, inhoudende een korte onderwysinghe inde konst der zeevaert, en beschryvinghe der seen en kusten van de oostersche, noordsche, en westersche schipvaert (1624) Pascaarte van alle de zeecusten van Europa (1625) . Atlantis Appendix (1630) Appendix Theatri ... et Atlantis ... (1631) Atlas (1634) Novus Atlas (1635) Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1635) Toonneel des Aerdrycks (1635) Le Theatre du Monde (1635) Theatre du monde ou Nouvel Atlas (1638)