UCSB Special Collections: Collections: Exhibits

The Indefatigable Willem Blaeu
(1571-1638)

Seventeenth Century Mapmaker March 4 - April 26, 2002

The Indefatigable Willem Blaeu (1571-1638)

The portrait of Willem Janszoon Blaeu bears the Latin motto, Indefessus Agendo, Guilielmus Blaeu. An English equivalent of this phrase would be "Indefatigable Agenda, William Blue," and it refers to this Dutch mapmaker's ambition to become Europe's premiere publisher of cartographic materials. Upon the death of the publisher of Gerhard Mercator's maps, Willem Blaeu seized his opportunity to release the most ambitious atlas of his day, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, also known simply as Atlas Novus, or the New Atlas. This six-volume set contained the most up-to-date maps of the entire world. After his death in 1638, Blaeu's dream of cartographic greatness was carried on by his son, who eventually published the 12-volume Atlas Major, which was the most expensive book sold during the entire 17th century.

Case 1.
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638
[Theatrum orbis terrarum. French. Selections]
Le Theatre du Monde, ou, Nouvel Atlas: quatriesme partie / mis en lumiere par Guillaume et Iean Blaeu - Amsterdami: Apud Iohannem Blaeu, 1645.
1 broadside: col. ill.; 51 cm.
Main Library: Special Collections,
Printers Collection Z 276.5 .B582 1645

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638
Topographia Limaniæ [map]
From Theatrum orbis terrarum, vol. 2
[Amsterdam: Blaeu 1648-49]
1 map: 38 x 50 cm.
Main Library: Special Collections
G 1015 .B493 1648

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638
Montisferrati Ducatus [map]
Scale [ca. 1:63,360]
Text on verso.
[Amsterdam?: s.n., 1647?]
1 map: 35 x 47 cm.
Main Library: Special Collections
Maximus Blaeu 1647iii

Case 2.
Mercator, Gerhard, 1512-1594
Walachia, Servia, Bulgaria, Romania [map]
Per Gerardum Mercatorum; Guiljelmus Blaeu excudebat. Scale [ca. 1:2,150,000]
[Amsterdam]: Guiljelmus Blaeu, [164-?]
1 map: col., 37 x 49 cm.
Main Library, Special Collections
Antique Maps Blaeu 164-?

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Archiepiscopatus Cameracensis [map]
Scale [ca. 1:250,000]
From Theatrum orbis terrarum, vol. 2
[Amsterdam: Blaeu 1648-49]
1 map: 36 x 48 cm.
Main Library: Special Collections
G 1015 .B493 1648

Case 3.
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Erpach comitatus [map]
Scale [ca. 1:175,000]
Amsterdam: [s.n., 1655?]
1 map: col.; 35 x 47 cm.
Main Library, Special Collections
Maximus Blaeu 1655jjj

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Venezuela cum parte australi Novæ Andalusiæ [map]
Guiljelmus Blaeu excudit.
Scale [ca. 1:3,200,000]
Amstelodami: Guiljelmus Blaeu [163-?]
1 map: col.; 36 x 46 cm.
Main Library, Special Collections
Antique Maps Blaeu 163-?

Case 4.
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon , 1571-1638.
The Light of Navigation. Amsterdam 1612
[by] Willem Jansz Blaeu (William Iohnson).
[Amsterdam, N. Israel, c.1964]
xiii, [60], 114, 118p. Illus., maps (41 fold),
port. 27 x 31 cm. (Theatrum orbis terrarum;
a series of atlases in facsimile. 1^st series, v.6)
Main Library, Special Collections
G 1793 .B52 1964

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
The world in 1635 [map]
Scale [ca. 1:100,000,000]
Ithaca, NY: Historic Urban Plans [1977?]
1 map: col.; 35 x 46 cm.
Main Library, Map & Imagery Lab
3200 1635 .B6 1977? [non-circ.]

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Regiones svb. Polo Artico / Auctore Guiljelmo Blaeu. Scale not given.
[Ottawa]: Association of Canadian Map Libraries, 1982.
1 map: 36 x 47 cm. (Facsimile; no. 90)
Main Library, Map & Imagery Lab
3401s S7 VAR .A8 no. 90

Case 5
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Nova et acurata totius Americæ tabula, Blaeu
[map] Scale [ca. 1:32,000,000]
Oxford, England: Wychwood Editions;
Santa Barbara, CA: Maplink [1998?] (0783412185)
1 map: col.; 52 x 67 cm.
Main Library, Map & Imagery Lab
3300 1650 .B4 1998?

Case 6
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Africa: 1665. Scale [ca. 1:32,000,000]
Ithaca, NY: Historic Urban Plans, [1997]
1 map: col.; 34 x 45 cm.
Main Library, Map & Imagery Lab
7800 1665 .H5 1997 [non-circ.]
Broekema, C., comp.

Deutschland vor drei Jahrhunderten

[Gütersloh] Bertelsmann, [1971]
300 p. illus., maps 30 cm.
Main Library, Map & Imagery Lab
Public Area G 1908 .B76 1662a

Case 7.
Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638
Typus Frisiae orientalis [map]
From Theatrum orbis terrarum, vol. 2
[Amsterdam: Blaeu 1648-49]
1 map: 36 x 48 cm.
Main Library, Special Collections
G 1015 .B493 1648

Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.
Territorium Metense [map]
Scale [ca. 1:225,000]
From Theatrum orbis terrarum, vol. 2
[Amsterdam: Blaeu 1648-49]
1 map: 36 x 48 cm.
Main Library, Special Collections
G 1015 .B493 1648