FOOTNOTES:
[1] An exhaustive study of the life and work of Willem Janszoon Blaeu does not exist. One of great value and interest is that by Baudet, P. J. H. Leven en werken van Willem Jansz. Blaeu, uitgegeven door het Provincial Utrechtsch genootschap van kunsten en wetenschappen. Utrecht, 1871.
The author acknowledges here his indebtedness to Baudet’s work for invaluable aid in the preparation of this brief biography.
[2] See illustration, p. 12. This, it will be noted, is a map signed “Insula Hvaena sive Venusia à Gviljelmo Blaev cum sum Tychone Astronomiae operam daret delineata.”
[3] See illustration, p. 30.
August 8, 1576, the corner-stone of the Castle of Uranienburg was laid with much ceremony, and the completion of the building was made possible through the generous contributions and patronage of Frederick II of Denmark. See, for a brief description, Wolf: Geschichte der Astronomie, München, 1877, p. 277; Picard, J. Voyage d’Uranibourg, ou observations astronomiques faites en Dannemarck. (Mem. de l’Acad. royale des sciences depuis 1666 jusque à 1699, tom. VII, p. 197); Blaeu: Atlas Major, vol. I, pp. 61-101. Twelve illustrations of the Island of Hveen, and of the observatory of Uranienburg, with brief description, may here be found. These illustrations, it appears, were taken from Brahe: Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. 1598.
[4] This great copper globe, which Picard describes as having a diameter of 4 feet 7 inches and 1 line, constructed in Augsburg under the direction of Paul Hainzel, appears to have been sent to Uranienburg about 1584. In the course of succeeding years more than one thousand stars were represented on its surface according to the observations of Tycho Brahe. In 1597 the great astronomer left Denmark to find a home in Prague, taking with him his astronomical instruments, including his celestial globe. After Brahe’s death in 1601, these instruments were purchased by Rudolph II, but on the capture of the City of Prague in 1623 by the Danish Prince Ulrich the globe with other objects of interest was taken to Copenhagen. Here it remained until 1728, when it was destroyed by fire together with the castle in which it had so long been kept.
[5] John Blaeu, son of Willem, tells us that in 1591 his father was amanuensis of Tycho Brahe. See Blaeu: Atlas Major, 1662, vol. I, p. 63.
[6] Given by Baudet, p. 154.
[7] On the title-page of many of the books published by Blaeu, as on many of the maps which he issued, appears the expression “Sub signo solarii deaurati.” Most of the works printed by Blaeu before 1619 have as his printer’s device a balance with a terrestrial globe in the right scale and a celestial globe in the left, the latter being represented as the heavier and having the word “Praestat” printed below it. In certain later publications this mark was replaced by an armillary sphere, at the left of which is an allegorical figure representing Time and on the right a figure representing Hercules with the inscription “Indefessus agendo.” See p. 59.