Rare Frontispiece in Full Contemporary Color with Gilt Highlights

"America", Blaeu, Johannes

This superb frontispiece is from Volume 11 of Blaeu's Atlas Maior and is centered on a female personification of the Americas. The female figure wears feathers and carries a bow and arrow while standing atop the severed head of a European man, likely a Spanish conquistador. Surrounding her is imagery associated with the Americas, including indigenous peoples in the gold mining trade, a stack of gold bars, European ships in the harbor awaiting the riches for transport back to Europe, and a large lizard symbolizing the exoticism to be found in the New World. The sky is filled with clouds, putti, natives being converted to Christianity, and a conquistador battling a devil. Engraved by Jeremias Falck based on an original drawing by Nicolaes van Berchem that now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. This title page is quite rare, as it was only included in some copies of Volume 11 of the Latin edition.

References: Shirley (Title Pages) #53; Van der Krogt (Vol. II) #2:35.

Condition: B

Full contemporary color on a moderately toned sheet with scattered foxing that is mostly confined to the blank margins. There are a couple of short edge tears that have been closed on verso with archival materials, including one that enters the image about 0.5" at right.