Catalog Archive
Auction 158, Lot 349

Blaeu's Strip-Map of the Dnieper River

"Lectori S. Hunc Borysthenis Tractum ut ad Nostrum Geographiae Tabulam…", Blaeu, (Family)

Subject: Dnieper River, Ukraine

Period: 1635 (circa)

Publication: Theatre du Monde ou Nouvel Atlas

Color: Hand Color

Size:
12.5 x 29.3 inches
31.8 x 74.4 cm
Download High Resolution Image
(or just click on image to launch the Zoom viewer)

Superb, large map showing the course of the Dnieper River from Cherkasy to the estuary on the Black Sea. The map is in strip style with two vertical maps following the course of the river, each decorated with cartouches and compass roses and including numerous lengthy notations describing the cataracts, cities, salt mines, fortresses, and the historical traditions of the Kozaks. Putti flank a large cartouche at bottom. This map is based on an inset map from the important Radziwill-Makowski map of the Duchy of Lithuania (1613), which was the most accurate map of Lithuania and served as a resource for all other maps of the region for 150 years. Blaeu first published the map, along with the inset of the Dnieper River, as a four-sheet map in his Appendix in 1631. The map of Lithuania and the strip map of the Dnieper River then appeared separately in subsequent Blaeu atlases. Engraved by Hessel Gerritsz. Two sheets joined, as issued. French text on verso, published between 1635-38.

References: Ukraine in Old Maps pp. 188-89; Van der Krogt (Vol. II) #1730/II:2A.

Condition: A

An excellent impression with full original color and minor marginal soiling. There is a bluish shadow that runs horizontally at bottom left that is caused by our scanner and does not appear on the map image.

Estimate: $1,600 - $2,000

Sold for: $1,200

Closed on 6/22/2016

Archived