Blaeu’s Carte à Figure of Europe
SKU: 7725Title:
Blaeu’s Carte à Figure of Europe
Date of publication:
c.1640
Printed Measurement:
41.5 x 56 cm
Colour:
original
Mapmaker(s):
Europa recens descripta
Copper engraving, 41.5 x 56 cm, original hand-colour, some oxidisation, French text on verso.
Blaeu's 'carte à figure' map of Europe, with ten costume vignettes and nine city views around the edges and galleys, galleons, sea monsters, bears and lions spread around the map. Of particular interest are the placenames on Greenland relating to Frobisher's voyage of 1576, including Queen Elizabeth's Foreland. Frobisher believed he had found the Friesland of the Zeno Brothers, but Blaeu has depicted it as a separate entity. The Blaeu firm was official cartographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and Blaeu globes were carried on all VOC vessels; its map-making was of the highest quality at a time when the Low Countries were at the forefront of the international market.