Blaeu's Magnificent World Map

"Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula", Blaeu, Willem

A magnificent map featuring a carte-a-figures border with allegorical representations of the sun, the moon, the five known planets, the four elements and the four seasons. Along the bottom are vignettes showing the seven wonders of the world: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus straddling the harbor at Rhodes, the Pyramids, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus at Cairo, the Temple of Diana, the Statue of Jupiter and the lighthouse at Alexandria. Josua van Ende engraved this map, reducing it from Blaeu's 1605 wall map for inclusion in atlases.

Petrus Plancius' world map of 1592 was the main source of geographical information. The map is shown on Mercator's projection with a massive Southern Continent attached to New Guinea, with the coastal names of Beach and Psittacorum regio noted from Marco Polo's travel memoirs. North America has the westward bulge characteristic of the time, with the Strait of Anian noted. Korea is shown as an island and Japan is in a kite-like shape. The map itself is richly decorated with cartouches, sea battles, monsters and compass roses. Fourth state with Tierra del Fuego shown as an island and the date omitted from the lower cartouche on the right. German text on verso.

References: Goss (Blaeu) #1; Shirley #255.

Condition: B

Attractive color with light soiling, minor show-through of text on verso, a few printer's creases, and some professionally repaired centerfold separations. There are several tears that have also been professionally repaired, including a tear that extends from the bottom of the sheet through Africa, a 1" tear north of South America, and a tear that extends 1" into map border at bottom right.