| PAGE | |
| WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU | [11] |
| WORLD MAP OF 1605 | [51] |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | [61] |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BLAEU’S PRINCIPAL GEOGRAPHICAL PUBLICATIONS | [65] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Willem Janszoon Blaeu. 1571-1638 (J. Falck, sculp.) | [Frontispiece] |
| Facing Page | |
| Island of Hveen, showing the location of Uranienburg. From Le Grand Atlas | [12] |
| Press invented by Blaeu. From Johnson, J. Typographia | [16] |
| Interior of Tycho Brahe’s Observatory at Uranienburg. From Le Grand Atlas | [30] |
| Terrestrial globe and celestial globe, 1616. Willem Janszoon Blaeu | [44] |
| World Map from Toonneel des Aerdrycx, by Willem Janszoon Blaeu | [52] |
| Printer’s mark of the Blaeu Press [tail-piece, [page 59]]. |
WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU
1571-1638
WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU
AND HIS
WORLD MAP OF 1605
WILLEM JANSZOON BLAEU, one of Holland’s most distinguished map and globe makers of the early seventeenth century, was born at the village of Alkmaar in the year 1571; such is the record which finds general acceptance.[1]
Of his childhood nothing is known. It was some time in his early boyhood days that he went to Amsterdam, where he found employment, it appears at first, in the house of a Holland merchant, and later as a joiner’s apprentice. We can be certain neither of the time when he decided to leave Amsterdam, nor of the circumstances which induced him to visit the island of Hveen, then belonging to Denmark,[2] an event of much significance in his life. We, however, cannot be far wrong in asserting the promptings for this visit to have been his early liking for mathematical, geographical and astronomical studies. On this island he was brought into intimate relations with Tycho Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer, who, in 1576, established here his observatory at the Castle of Uranienburg.[3] For near a quarter of a century, this was one of the most famous centers in all Europe for the study of astronomical science and of its practical applications. Blaeu, let it be noted, was not the first of the young Netherlanders who found his way to Uranienburg that he might receive astronomical instructions from the great master. As early as 1591, Jacob Florent van Langren of Amsterdam sent his son Arnold to the Danish astronomer with a request that he might be allowed to copy the catalogue of the stars which had been located at his observatory, wishing to make use of the same in the new celestial globes which he proposed to construct. This special request, we are informed, was not granted, for Brahe’s records were not yet complete, but young van Langren was given permission to see the large celestial globe which was in the observatory, and on which at the time of the visit 800 stars had been represented.[4] It is stated that Tycho often had as many as ten or twelve boys at his observatory as his assistants.