Rhenus Fluviorum Europae Celeberrimus, cum Mosa, Mosella, et Reliquis, in illum se...

Monumental, old coloured map of the course of the Rhine by Willem and Joan Blaeu. The engraved map on two joint sheets shows the Rhine from its headwaters in Switzerland with the Lake Constance to its mouth in the North Sea. To the lower right a beautiful title cartouche with three river gods symbolizing the Rhine, Meuse and Moselle. Above left a cartouche held by putti with the coats of arms of Switzerland, Alsace, Rhine Palatinate, Mainz, Trier, Cologne, Cleves, Guelders, Utrecht and Holland. To the top right a cartouche with a dedication to Andreas Bicker.

Centrefolds in margins partly backed. Very good condition with beautiful old colouring.

Willem Janszoon Blaeu was born 1571 in Alkmaar. He was trained from 1594 to 1596 by the famous danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. 1599 he went to Amsterdam and founded a business as globe maker. Later he started producing map and sea charts, including his first world map in 1605. In 1633 he was appointed Hydrographer for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). His most famous work was the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus of 1635, which was published until 1655 in total six volumes. After Blaeu's death in 1638 his sons Joan and Cornelis continued the business and finished the Atlas Novus and started an even larger work, the Atlas Maior, which reached 12 volumes. In 1672 a fire destroyed the printing house and most of the printing plates. Joan Blaeu died the following year, leaving the business to his three sons Willem (1635-1701), Pieter (1637-1706) and Joan II (1650-1712). While the business began to decline in the hands of his sons, the dominance of the Blaeu publishing house finally ended in 1703 when the V.O.C. stopped publishing maps bearing the Blaeu family name. Some of the surviving plates were bought by F. de Wit and Schenk & Valk.