A magnificent example of Blaeu’s first terrestrial globe, all parts complete and original with the exception of the legs. Scale 1:37,500,000, prime meridian St. Michel (Azores). A legend in North America refers to the various discoveries of the continent, another just south of Africa tells us of Vasco da Gama. The availability on the market of a Blaeu globe is a rare occurrence.

Early globe making was dominated by both the Van Langrens and Jodocus Hondius in the late sixteenth century. The mantle would soon pass to Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571-1638), who was the greatest globe maker of the seventeenth century. Born in Alkmaar as the son of a herring merchant, he went on to learn mathematics and in 1594 studied under the astronomer Tycho Brahe. He returned to Amsterdam in 1598 and established himself as a globe and map maker. At the initiative of Adriaen Anthoniszoon he was encouraged to produce a celestial globe. His first pair of globes was 34 cms. in diameter, the celestial being published in 1597/98. This example offered here is his first terrestrial globe, published in 1599 to match the celestial. The advice to the reader of this globe states; Guilhelmus Ianssonius Blaeu Auctor et sculptor. This is the only known work Blaeu claims to have engraved. Blaeu updated his globes as new information became available. As geographer to the Dutch East India Company he had access to their extensive records. The business passed to his son Joan, and then to his grandson Joan II. ‘”he family produced some of the finest globes of the seventeenth century” (Van der Krogt). The copper plates for the 34 cm. globe passed to Johannes van Ceulen, then to Johannes de Ram and finally to Jacques de la Feuille.

Only two examples of the first state published in 1599 can be located today, both residing in the Bibliotheca Angelica in Rome. Only two are known of the second state also. State 3 survives in 21 examples, state 4 (that offered here) in 11 examples and state 5 in two. Provenance: Harreveld, Netherlands, most likely a Franciscan Monastery since c.1780 when a ‘new’ member joined them and brought it with him; transferred 1909 to Franziskaner Kolleg St. Ludwig, near Mulheim, Germany, at its inauguration on 1 October that year (it is recorded in a ‘Festschrift’ accompanying the inauguration, one of the contributions by P. Hermann Schwethelm is devoted to the globe); transferred at an unknown date to the convent of Franziskanerkloster at Osnabruck, Germany.

Known locations of examples:

State 1, 1599: Bibliotheca Angelica in Rome (two examples)
State 2, c.1618/21: Bibliothèque Municipale, Bordeaux/ Geographisches Institut der Universität?, Gottingen
State 3, after 1621: Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam/ Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen/ Private Collection, Germany/ National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (x2)/ Museum of the Jagellonian University, Krakow/ Museum Boerhaave, Leiden/ Stadtgeschichtliches Museum, Leipzig/ Science Museum, London/ Occidental College, Los Angeles/ Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg/ Museum of the History of Science, Oxford/ Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (x2)/ Kabinet pro Kartografii CSAV, Prague?/ Predigerseminar, Preetz/ Private Colletion, Stockholm?/ Tenri Central Library, Tenri-Shi, Japan/ Civico Musei di Storia ed Arte, Trieste?/ Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna/ Private collection, Vienna
State 4, 1682: Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam/ Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Brussels/ Stedelijk Museum >Het Prinsenhof=, Delft/ Forschungsbibliothek, Schloss ?, Gotha?/ National Maritime Museum, Greenwich/ Kasteel Keppel, Laag Keppel, Netherlands/ Yale University, New Haven/ Museum der Stadt, Regensburg/ Maritiem Museum >Prins Hendrik=, Rotterdam/ Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna/ ? France
State 5, c.1700: Sankt Pölten, Dioezesanmuseum, Austria/ Universitätsbibliothek, Würzburg

Van der Krogt ‘Old Globes in the Netherlands’ Bla 11; Van der Krogt ‘Globi Neerlandici’ BLA I state 4.