1631 Willem Blaeu Carte-a-figures Map of the World

This is Willem Blaeu's magnificent map of the world, considered the epitome of the carte á figures and the gold standard for decorative cartography of the Dutch Golden Age. Despite being created in 1606, it was the centerpiece map for Blaeu's Atlas Novus for nearly twenty years starting in 1630. It represented the dominant European image of the world for the first part of the 17th century, and remains the sine qua non for collectors of world maps, and of Dutch cartography.

Mapping the Limits of European Exploration

Blaeu's map is laid out on the Mercator Projection, a mathematically challenging feat which few cartographers of Blaeu's era attempted. In many respects, however, it was an ideal form for Blaeu - since cartographers were ignorant of what lay at the poles during this period, the polar distortion inherent in the Mercator Projection mattered little. Two inset polar projections at the lower corners of the map reveal further the gaps in geographical knowledge of the extreme north and south. Both the southern polar projection and the main map exhibit the southern continent of Terra Australis, adopted by Blaeu from the 16th century authorities, Mercator and Ortelius. Blaeu's map, in its first state of 1606, depicted Tierra del Fuego as part of Terra Australis. He re-drew this area in the third state of the map, probably in 1617, showing the results of the Le Maire and Schouten voyage as on the present example. The southern continent reaches far enough north in the South Pacific to connect with New Guinea. The land of 'Beach' south of the East Indies appears, preserving Mercator's erroneous interpretation of Marco Polo's Locach, or Champa.

The northern limit of the map's geographical information is Spitzbergen, here named Nieulandt, and shown incompletely. Nova Zembla's west coast is illustrated northwards to the point at which Barentz's famous final voyage wintered. Beyond this, the northern coasts of Asia are largely imaginary, and Blaeu's map does not speculate on the northernmost shores of America. The northern limits of the Atlantic - depicting the coast of Greenland, Iceland, and the phantom island of Frisland - reveal the long arm of Nicolo Zeno's fraudulent cartography. In spite of this, the Davis Strait and the discoveries of Frobisher are here recorded.

Blaeu's treatment of China, Japan, and Korea represents another nod to Ortelius, whose Portuguese Jesuit sources had not yet been surpassed. Korea appears as a narrow island. Asia and America are, as with Mercator and Ortelius, separated by the strait of Anian, separating Asia and America.

While by Blaeu's time the coastline of Africa was well understood, its interior was not: he follows Ptolemaic speculation regarding the sources of the Nile, mapping two speculative lakes in southern Africa. Lake Parima, thought to be a location of El Dorado, appears in South America. In North America, the cartographer maps the supposed Seven Cities of gold, noted as 'Ceptem Citta' - a legend dating to the saga of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the discoveries of the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and ancient Portuguese legends.

Surrounding the Map

A figured map - carte á figures - reinforced a regional map's cartographic data with imagery intended to give the reader an idea of the denizens of the land depicted, and the places they lived. Such a map focusing on a country, or a continent, would include figures of the nobles, soldiers, and commoners, and would include views of the chief cities. Such narrow focus is below the scope of a world map such as this, whose imagery is less related to geography than cosmography: focusing on the nature of the world and its place in a greater cosmos. The seven medallions at the top represent the sun, moon, and planets. These are represented by their associated Greek gods, and all of them, including the Sun, are depicted as charioteers. The implication that the Sun moves, like the moon and the planets, reflects a conventional geocentric model of the solar system. The lefthand border presents the four primary elements, while the right represents the seasons. Along the bottom, rather than contemporaneous cities, are illustrations of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Colossus of Rhodes; the Great Pyramids; the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; the Temple of Diana; the Temple of Jupiter; and The Great Lighthouse of Pharos.

The map's artistry is not limited to its borders. It displays beautiful, clear, and legible calligraphy, ornate cartouches, and superb compass roses. The seas are liberally decorated with monsters, ships, and battles.

Publication History and Census

Blaeu's map was first engraved by Josua van den Ende in 1606. Its first three states are extremely rare, which were sold as separates having predated Blaeu's atlases. This is an example of the fourth state of the map, which first appeared without verso text in Willem Blaeu's 1630 Appendix. Thereafter, it was included in Blaeu's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus from 1631 to 1655. The long publication history of this atlas has resulted in this being an acquirable map, but examples of this quality have grown scarce on the market.