Blaeu Family
This seventeenth-century family of Dutch cartographers, publishers, and printers produced some of the Golden Age of Dutch cartography's masterpieces.
Willem Jansz Blaeu (1571–1638; before 1621, a.k.a. Willem Jansz and G. or W. Janssonius) was a student of astronomer Tycho Brahe who dealt in globes, maps, and nautical instruments in Amsterdam after 1599. He also ran a printing business, which published his cartographic productions, including the two-volume Theatrum orbis terrarum, sive, Atlas Novus (1634–5) and works by prominent Dutch authors. William and his son Joan served as the Dutch East India Company's official cartographers.
William's son Joan (1598/9–1673) qualified as a lawyer before joining the family business. His world map, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula (1648), was the first depiction of a heliocentric solar system based on Nicolaus Copernicus's book On the Revolutions of the Spheres (first printed in 1543), incorporated details of Abel Tasman's discoveries. It provided the details for the world map set into the pavement of the Groote Burger-Zaal in the new Amsterdam Town Hall, now the Amsterdam Royal Palace (1655). His eleven-volume Atlas Maior included six hundred maps and, as the most expensive book published in the 17th century, became a status symbol.
Other works included the twelve-volume Le Grand Atlas, ou Cosmographie blaviane, en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer, et le ciel, with around six hundred engraved maps and plates, a collection of Dutch city maps named Toonneel der Steeden (Views of Cities, 1649) and the first atlas of Scotland, (1654).
A fire destroyed the studio and printery in 1672, causing significant damage to the family business. This was a significant setback for William and his brother Cornelius, who had taken over the company after their father's death in 1638. Despite their efforts, the firm was liquidated in 1708, never fully recovering from the fire.
