Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus. Pars Quinta.

Several tears, extensively backed. With beautiful old colours, heightened with gold.

Joan Blaeu was a Dutch cartographer, born in Alkmaar in 1571. He was the son of the cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu, a pupil of Tycho Brahe. He became a doctor of law in 1620 and joined his father's publishing company together with his brother Cornelis in 1631. The most important cartographic work from the Blaeus is the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum sive Atlas Novus of 1635, which appeared in a total of six volumes until 1655. Between 1662 and 1672, Joan published an even larger work, the Atlas Maior, which reached 12 volumes. The Blaeus' atlas production came to an abrupt end with the fire in their workshop and the resulting destruction of many printing plates in 1672. 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 Blaeu publishing house's dominance finally ended in 1703 when the Dutch East India Company (VOC), stopped publishing maps bearing the Blaeu family name. Some of the surviving copper plates were later used by F. de Wit and Schenk & Valk.