"Le Theatre Du Monde, ou Nouvel Atlas, Mis en lumiere par Guillaume et Jean Blaeu. Quatriesme Partie", Blaeu, (Family)

This handsome title page comes from Blaeu's atlas of British maps. At the top of the page is the leonine Royal Arms of England, capped with a crown, flanked by a lion and Welsh griffin, and enclosed by a banner reading "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (roughly: "Evil unto him who thinks evil of it"). Below is an architectural form with niches inspired by the title page of John Speed's atlas of British maps. Each niche is filled by a figure standing for one of Britain's cultural ancestors: a Roman, a Saxon, a Dane, and a Norman. In the center is the archetypal ancient Briton, tattooed and brandishing a spear. Title imprint is pasted onto the sheet, as was common at the time of publication.

References: Shirley (TP) #46A; Van der Krogt (Vol. II) #2:24.

Condition: B+

A sharp impression with lovely gilt highlights. There is light soiling, faint dampstaining that just enters engraved image at right, and both extraneous creasing and a few edge tears along the left side of the sheet.